The International Republican Institution (IRI) has revealed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would emerge as the main party in the National Assembly with 32 percent increase in its popularity while the popularity of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has declined to 18 percent.
The survey carried out in 2012 revealed that the PML-N’s popularity has increased from 28 percent to 32 percent, while the popularity of PTI has declined from 24 percent to 18 percent and it attained second position, whereas the Pakistan People’s Party attained third position with 14 percent vote bank. Balochistan is the only province where the PPP’s popularity showed an upward trend.
The PML-Quaid could secure only two percent votes.
The report revealed further the PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has gained much popularity which is 32 percent. The PML-N also gained popularity from 9 percent to 12 percent, JUI-F has also gained popularity in the province.
In Punjab the PML-N’s popularity increased from 43 percent to 49 percent, whereas the PPP also gained popularity from 7 percent to 8 percent, while the graph of PTI popularity is 19 percent. In Balochistan, the popularity of all political parties increased, except PTI. The PML-N’s popularity has increased from 8 percent to 13 percent, the PPP from 5 percent to 18 percent and that of the JUI-F from 4 to 8 percent.
In Sindh, the PPP’s popularity has declined from 39 percent to 32 percent, the PML-N popularity increased from 6 percent to 8 percent, MQM from 11 percent to 16 percent, PTI 9 percent and that of PML-Q is only 1 percent. According to the survey, a majority of people opposed the southern Punjab province. Around 32 percent people considered inflation as the biggest problem in Pakistan, whereas 20 percent considered unemployment as the number one problem.