Poll shows pessimism growing in Pakistan

About 88 per cent Pakistanis feel their country is headed in the wrong direction, 59 per cent say the next year will be worse than the current year while 67 per cent believe democracy has made no difference to their wellbeing, according to the findings of an opinion survey by the US-based International Republican Institute.

The poll was conducted from Oct 15 to 30 and the results were issued on Friday. The randomly selected sample consisted of 3,500 adult men and women from 223 rural and 127 urban locations in 50 districts in the four provinces.

The margin of error for the sample was 1.66 per cent in 19 out of 20 cases.The poll indicates a high degree of pessimism and discontent.When asked if they felt the country was headed in the right or wrong direction, 88 per cent responded wrong direction while 11 per cent said right direction.

These ratings are slightly worse than the sentiment in January 2008, shortly before the nation went to the February elections polls.When asked about their personal economic situation over the past year, 73 per cent said it had improved, 12 per cent said it had worsened and 14 per cent said it had remained the same, essentially unchanged since January.When asked if they felt that their economic wellbeing would improve or worsen during the upcoming year, 59 per cent said they felt it would worsen, as compared to 46 per cent in the June poll and 48 per cent in January.

The poll also saw an increase in the number of people who felt less secure this year than they did last year, rising from 15 points in June to 78 per cent in October. The high of 85 per cent occurred in January after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and resulting violence.