As the Obama administration continues with the deeply unpopular drone missile attacks on suspected Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds inside Pakistan, the US has replaced India as the country, Pakistanis feel most threatened by, says a survey report released by Gallop Pakistan on Friday.
Fifty-nine percent of the respondents in an opinion poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan for Doha, Qatar-based al-Jazeera English said the greatest threat to Pakistan came from US, while 18 percent said India. Eleven percent said the Taliban posed the greatest threat to their country.
The survey was conducted on July 26-27 among a sample of 2,662 respondents from rural and urban areas in the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP. It showed not even one Pakistani out of 10 has faith in the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari. However, even fewer people would like the army to replace him.
When respondents were asked what they consider to be the biggest threat to the nation of Pakistan, 11 percent of the population identified the Taliban fighters, who have been blamed for scores of deadly bomb attacks across the country in recent years. Another 18 percent said that they believe that the greatest threat came from neighbouring India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since partition in 1947.
But an overwhelming number, 59 percent said the greatest threat to Pakistan right now is, in fact, the US, a donor of considerable amounts of military and development aid. The resentment was made clearer when residents were asked about the Pakistan's military efforts to tackle the Taliban. Keeping with recent trends a growing number of people, now 41 percent supported the campaign.
About 24 percent of people remained opposed, while another 22 percent remained neutral to the question. When people were asked, if they would support government-sanctioned dialogue with Taliban fighters if it were a viable option the numbers change significantly.
Although the same 41 percent said they would still support the military offensive, the number of those supporting dialogue leaps up to 43 percent. So clearly, Pakistanis are, right now, fairly evenly split on how to deal with the Taliban threat.
However, when asked if they support or oppose the US military's drone attacks against what Washington claims are Taliban and al Qaeda targets only nine percent of respondents reacted favourably. A massive 67 percent say they oppose US military operations on Pakistani soil.
Respondents were asked if they thought the PPP was good or bad for the country. About 38 percent said the PPP was bad for the country, 20 percent believed it was good for the country and another 30 percent said they had no strong opinion. Respondents were even more fractured when asked for their views on how the country should be led. By far, the largest percentage would opt for Nawaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), as leader.
At least 38 percent backed him to run Pakistan. According to the survey, President Zardari received only nine percent support, while Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, had the backing of 13 percent. But from there, opinions vary greatly. Eight percent of the population would support a military government, 11 percent back a political coalition of the PPP and the PML-N. Another six percent throw their support behind religious parties and the remaining 15 percent would either back smaller groups or simply do not have an opinion.