CHINA PAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR IN THE NARRATIVE OF PAKISTAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (PDM) OF 2020

Abstract

Despite political, social, legal, administrative, and economic challenges, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is still making progress. However, in 2020, a new threat emerged in the form of an anti-government alliance called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which is a coalition of 11 political parties acting against the ruling party of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), demanded the resignation of the then Prime Minister Imran Khan and the stepping down of the Chairman CPEC Authority, which may create political instability in Pakistan shortly and may disturb CPEC progress, due to agitations1. This article focuses on the PDM narration building around CPEC. To this end, twenty political party-based alliances since 1950 are analyzed to give an accurate account of the modern impressions of historical politics. Political Opportunity Theory (POT) was utilized to know the PDM’s narration affectivity. The result of the study shows that the PDM may influence PTI and CPEC in near future and may dethrone the PTI government through no confidence. However, historically speaking, the majorities of anti-government oppositional alliances have only been partially successful and have failed to overthrow the ruling governments.