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For the first time in Pakistan, a sitting prime minister has been ousted through a ‘No-Confidence Motion (NCM)’ initiated by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in April 2022. PDM, the coalition of 15 political parties, claimed the success of NCM as the win of democracy. The ousted PM and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mr. Imran Khan, alleged that the motion was a ‘regime change’ attempt backed by a foreign conspiracy initiated by internal and external elements. Pakistani journalists, who are already labelled as political partisans, took to the social media platform Twitter, and started spreading the ‘political discourse’ about the removal of Khan from the PM office. This research explores the predominant themes within the discourse produced through the Twitter handles of the selected journalists; Arshad Sharif, Hamid Mir and Mazhar Abbas. Secondly, to determine whether and to what extent the journalists have produced the ‘political discourse’ and or the ‘solidarity discourse’. We have employed thematic analysis as a theoretical and methodological tool to achieve the research objectives. The findings show a clear divide between the journalists and an explicit polarization within the discourse produced through their Twitter posts on the issue, and the solidarity discourse is virtually non-existent.

There was a high level of rallying around the flag during Covid-19 for the Social Democratic government. But the support waned with the sense of crisis, and some ‘scandals’ surfaced. The ‘mink scandal’ caused an early election to be called. A high number of parties, 14, competed in the election, and after the election 12 parties are represented in parliament – a new record number. When comparing the election results of 2019 and 2022, two overall results stand out. First, only one of the two traditional large parties has maintained such elevated status and fragmentation is increased. Second, two new parties have made it into the ‘top-5’ in 2022, both of which were formed by former prominent Liberals. The election yielded a narrow victory to the red bloc. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was able to stay in office after the election but exchanged her red bloc parliamentary majority with a coalition government with the Liberals and Moderates. Thus, a new type of coalition has emerged, a majority government spanning the usual two blocs, hence, challenged by opposition both to the right and left., During the Covid-19 crisis, there was a high level of rallying around the flag for the Social Democratic government. However, support waned with the sense of crisis, and some ‘scandals’ surfaced. The ‘mink scandal’ caused an early election to be called. A high number of parties, 14, competed in the election, and after the election 12 parties are now represented in parliament – a new record number. When comparing the election results of 2019 and 2022, two overall results stand out. First, only one of the two traditional large parties has maintained this status and fragmentation is increased. Second, two new parties made it into the ‘top-5’ in 2022, both formed by former prominent Liberals. The election yielded a narrow victory to the red bloc. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was able to stay in office after the election but exchanged her red bloc parliamentary majority for a coalition government with the Liberals and Moderates. Thus, a new type of coalition has emerged: a majority government spanning the usual two blocs, but challenged by opposition from both the right and left.