WAQASIA NAEEM2025-08-082025-08-082020https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/4687The study explores the linguistic construction of Self and Others by the Chief Martial Law Administrator/President, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haque (Late), and the then Chief Executive/ President Pervez Musharraf (presently living abroad)on Afghanistan wars from 1979 to 1988 and from 2001 to 2008. The data was composed of Zia-ul-Haque and Pervez Musharraf's addresses to the nation, interviews with local and foreign media, and briefings at national and international forums. Wodak's (2001) Discourse Historical Approach, along with Van Leeuwen's Social Actor Representation approach, was used as a theoretical lens to look for linguistic forms, rhetorical devices, and discursive strategies exploited by Zia-ul-Haque and Pervez Musharraf to legitimate their ideologies during these wars. The study reveals that both the military rulers used variouslinguistic forms: adjectives, pronouns, and modality, rhetorical devices: euphemism, metonymy,narratives, denials, hyperbole, nominalization, question/answer pairs, antithesis and rhetorical question to construct the discursive strategies: nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivation, intensification, and mitigation.enThesis