- PILDAT survey gives PML-N leader and prime minister 75 per cent approval rating
- PTI’s Imran Khan bags trust of 49 per cent of people interviewed
- Analyst rejects survey, says not a single institution in Pakistan has the capacity, trained workforce capability and integrity to conduct such technical surveys
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has emerged as the most trusted politician of the country with an approval rating of 75 per cent while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has won an approval rating of 49 per cent, followed by Asif Zardari who got 27 per cent.
On the contrary, MQM leader Altaf Hussain has emerged as the least popular leader in Pakistan with an approval rating of 13 per cent, according to a survey about the overall quality of democracy in Pakistan.
The respondents of the survey Included 3,231 citizens from urban and rural areas of all four provinces of Pakistan. The fieldwork for the report was done in face-to-face interviews in respondents’ homes. The sample is also based on a cross-section of various age, income, education and language groups of the population. Error margin is estimated to be approximately +3-5 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level, says the PILDAT report.
CRITICS SKEPTICAL:
Notwithstanding the survey, there is a huge question mark over the authenticity of such surveys which experts believe mostly are politically motivated and are used as a maneuvering tool to win public support ahead of any poll. Since local government elections are around the corner in Punjab and Sindh, the PILDAT survey is being seen as an effort by the regime to get support through media management.
It is interesting to note that despite such huge popularity, the PML-N lost two of its constituencies in the heart of Punjab while PML-N stalwart Sardar Ayaz Sadiq could only win by a narrow margin of 2,400 votes from Lahore, the heart of PML-N stronghold areas.
With the PML-N’s top leadership facing corruption charges in power projects and other related issues, the party faces a tough situation due to internal groupings ahead of the local government polls. Experts believe the poll might be an effort to help the PML-N government win the local government polls.
Noted analyst, Dr Rasool Bux Raees, told Pakistan Today that there was not a single institution in Pakistan which has the capacity, trained workforce capability and integrity to conduct such technical surveys.
“PILDAT is not at all a credible institution in my view. It doesn’t have the capacity to conduct such surveys in Pakistan. Neither do they have the trained workforce. There is always a possibility of errors in such cases as ground workers have no knowledge of modern tools that are imperative for such surveys. PILDAT doesn’t have capacity to conduct such surveys,” he said.
Dr Raess said that in such matters, PEW, Gallup, NDI and IRI have such capability and they are credible organisations. “These institutions, however, mostly conduct technical and business surveys in Pakistan with the help of other Pakistani counterparts, who lack tools to assess and gather samples properly,” he added.
Asked whether Gallup Pakistan was a credible institution for such opinion polls, Dr Raees said that Gallup Pakistan had no capability of its own, and it was advantage of the reputation of Gallup of US.
THE SURVEY RESULTS:
The approval ratings, conducted on the overall quality of democracy were up to 66 per cent at the end of the second Year of the incumbent government.
The survey revealed that the armed forces were the most trusted state institution while the Police were the least trusted with an approval rating of 32 per cent.
Another important question asked in the survey was how much the common people believed the General Elections 2013 were transparent. Over 30 per cent of the respondents believed General Election 2013 were completely rigged at the end of the second year, compared to 37 per cent in the previous year while 59 per cent of the respondents believe that the General Election in 2013 was somewhat to completely transparent and fair.
A whopping 51 per cent of the respondents rated the government’s performance in ensuring democratic oversight of the security sector highly. While the PML-N had the highest approval ratings at 70 per cent, the approval ratings of PTI and PPP were at 44 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.
The MQM emerged as the most negatively rated political party in the country with an approval rating 14 per cent. Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) received a relatively low rating at 19 per cent, the Awami National Party (ANP) had a 21 per cent rating and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) had only slightly higher approval ratings at 23 per cent.
TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS:
The trust of the public in the government institutions also saw a negative trajectory in the National Assembly has saw a negative trend as 49 per cent of people approved of the National Assembly as compared to 60 per cent shown last year.
Trust in Political Parties also saw a negative trend as only 36 per cent of the people expressed faith in political parties as compared to last year when 44 per cent said that they trusted political parties.
Faith in the Supreme Court and High Courts remained almost the same as 63 per cent people said they trusted the courts. Last year courts had got 62 per cent ratings. Lower Courts however suffered a major blow as only 43% per cent supported the civil courts as compared to last year’s approval of 50 per cent.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) also further lost confidence among masses as it got an approval rating of 37 per cent, as compared to last year when it had an overall rating of 43 per cent.
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
A substantial 80 per cent of the respondents say that holding local government elections nationwide are somewhat to very important. Only 11 per cent of the respondents believe that holding these elections is not very important or not important at all.
Public opinion in favour of holding local government elections has seen a clear increase, as by the end of the first year of the Federal and Provincial Governments in May 2014, this number stood at 71 per cent, whereas 27 per cent of the respondents believed that holding these elections is not very important or important at all.
On the other hand, 72 per cent of respondents believe that elected Local Governments are somewhat to very important in solving the problems faced by Pakistani Citizens, whereas by the end of the first year, only 65 per cent of the respondents believed this to be the case. Only 19 per cent asserted that elected Local Governments are not important for resolving the problems faced by citizens by the end of the second year.
