A Comparative Analysis of Ideology and Power Shifts in Urdu Translations of Prime Minister Imran Khan's 2019 UNGA Speech: A Mixed Methods Study of Translation Strategies and Critical Discourse Dynamics

Abstract

Translation is not simply a linguistic transfer of meaning from one language into
another; it is an ideological and socio-political act that reconstructs narratives, identities, and
relations of power. This study examines ideological and power shifts in Urdu translations of
Prime Minister Imran Khan's 2019 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) speech,
comparing versions produced by 92 News and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Using a mixedmethods, triangulated design, the analysis draws on Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough's
three-dimensional model), translation theory (Vinay and Darbelnet's procedures, Nida's
equivalence, Lefevere's rewriting), and functional-equivalence frameworks to examine lexical
choices, syntactic restructuring, omission, addition, paraphrase, semantic modulation, and
persuasive framing across thirty parallel extracts. The 92 News translation relied
predominantly on direct, semantically equivalent strategies that preserved informational
neutrality and formal equivalence, whereas the PTI translation showed substantial ideological
intervention through oblique procedures emotional amplification, mitigation of criticism,
selective omission, and patriotic reframing. These results indicate that political translation
operates as a mechanism of ideological mediation and public persuasion rather than as a
neutral reproduction of source content. The study contributes to translation studies, political
discourse analysis, media linguistics, and applied linguistics by showing how institutional
affiliation systematically shapes translation practice in politically sensitive contexts.