Revisiting Patriotism in Pakistan: How Imran Khan Arrest Redefined the Political Culture of Pakistan

South Asia is undergoing an unprecedented moment in political history. On the one hand, the region is witnessing a rise in nationalism and practices of alienation by the state while on the other hand there is a perpetual rise in anti-state publics (ethnic, religious, gendered as well as secular). Set in this context, the study focuses on how anti-state/counter publics are rising across mediated and physical spaces to respond to state-led narrative on Pakistani identity. Traditionally, Pakistan's political culture was defined by a silence around the role of military in day-to-day politics. The paper, in particular, aims to focus on the event of 9th May 2023 when Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan was arrested. His arrested erupted violent protests across different cities. In addition, the online protests manifested in the form of trolling, emotional outbursts, and an on-going conversation on the role of the Establishment in Pakistan. I locate the rise of the counter publics and the anti-establishment discourses on Twitter (now X). In this scenario, the counter publics were any publics that either supported Imran Khan or were against the establishment for its long-term role in politics. I see Twitter as a discursive space that allows unprecedented encounters between agonistic publics. With the use of 4Cat tool to retrieve data from Twitter between 9th May and 23rd May to qualitatively analyse how polarised publics are expressing anger, joy as well as fear online. I argue that Twitter has allowed spaces for episodic deliberation on discourses on national identity, patriotism and religion. The study will be a timely addition to emerging debates on the rise of nationalism in South Asia and the role ideological dispositions/political orientations play in shaping, and contesting state-led narratives on Pakistani identity. Most importantly, the study claims that these online frictions are part of the new political culture in the region, but should also be seen as a the first steps towards learning to coexist with adversaries (a trend that is unheard of in Pakistan). The paper reflects on the societal and political consequences of changes in political culture in the region. Theoretically, the study draws on the concepts of counter publics (Felski 1989, Fraser 1990, Squires 2003), agonistic publics (Mouffe 2005), democracy as a learning process (Habermas, 2011), and frictions as possibilities (Tsing 2005).