Power and Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Pakistan’s Toshakhana Act, 2024

Abstract

By employing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective, the current research critically analyzes the Toshakhana (Management and Regulation) Act, 2024, to examine how the language of this law creates and imitates relationships of power and ideologies of governance in the Pakistani governance system. Using the framework of the CDA proposed by Van Dijk (1997), the research explores the Act on three levels: macrostructure (themes and topics), mesostructure (discursive strategies), and microstructure (linguistic features) to show how authority, regulation, and transparency are equally constructed by discourse. The analysis contextualizes the Act within its socio-political and historical context not only to understand the role of the reformist governance but also the maintenance of the bureaucratic rule. In the evaluation of how discourse in law express ideological positions, the research allows an insight into how language is used as power in legal writings. The findings reveal that, although the Act advances accountability and transparency in the handling of state gifts, it also grants the state leverage over information and public office-holders via the application of direct, formal language. It also mirrors anti-corruption, controlled-transparency, and legal-deterrence ideologies, presenting compliance as a duty that is at once legal and ethical. Example to tie gift auctions to the uplift of female education shows state authority even more compelling within the framework of public welfare.