Around 71 percent Pakistanis want 'harsh or mild punishment' to former President Pervez Musharraf for his unconstitutional steps on November 3, 2007, says a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan. The survey launched by Gilani Research Foundation revealed "52 percent favour harsh punishment while 19 percent support mild punishment to the former president, and only 15 percent favour no punishment and the remaining 14 percent did not give any view."
A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country was asked that recently the Supreme Court had termed the enforcement of emergency on November 3, 2007 as illegal. Some people believed that Musharraf should be punished for this, while some believe he should not.
When asked the punishment should be harsh, mild, or none. Majority, 52 percent, said he (Musharraf) should be punished harshly and 19 percent believed he should be given a mild punishment for this crime. Fifteen percent of the respondents did not support punishing Musharraf for enforcing emergency on November 3, 2007 while 14 percent did not give any response.
The survey findings also showed that while there are no significant difference in views on punishing Musharraf across gender and age, there are notable differences across political affiliations. Those intending to vote for Muslim League (Nawaz), MMA, JUI and ANP have higher support for punishing Musharraf, above 80 percent, followed by PPP voters and PML-Q voters (around 60 percent) and the support is the lowest amongst MQM voters at only 19 percent.