Ruling elite – a threat bigger than Taliban

As many as 85 percent of Pakistanis polled by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) believed that the biggest threat to Pakistan came from ‘corruption and the deficient rule of law’ and the ‘ruling elite’, not the Taliban, the USA or India.
According to the statistics of the poll- carried out by CRSS on the social networking website Facebook- some 63 percent respondents pointed to ‘corruption and deficient rule of law’ as the largest threat faced by the country while nearly 22 percent considered ‘the ruling elite’ (comprising the politicians, the landed aristocracy, the army and the bureaucrats) as the biggest threat to the country, followed by roughly 12 percent respondents for whom Al Qaeda and Taliban constituted the greatest threat. Interestingly, less than three percent viewed the United States as the biggest threat, while less than one percent considered India as the biggest threat. Spread out over almost two weeks (July 18 – Aug 1st), the CRSS Facebook page poll attracted 414 responses to the question of ‘what do you think is the biggest threat for Pakistan’ with the choices including Al Qaeda and Taliban, Corruption and Deficient Rule of Law, India, The Ruling Elite (Politicians, Landed Aristocracy, Army, Bureaucracy) or the USA. The votes were cast by the CRSS page followers as well as friends of the administrators.
Although not representative of the entire Pakistani population, the responses to the poll underscore that many educated Pakistanis, particularly those using Facebook, have an ‘informed and logical analysis’ of the prevailing situation. The collective percentage for the responses of ‘corruption, deficient rule of law’, and ‘the ruling elite’ amounts to 85 percent of the total responses.According to CRSS the findings of this poll can not be generalised for the entire population of Pakistan, but they do give us a glimpse of how the more literate sections of the Pakistani society evaluate the country’s problems.