The prospect of Islamist militants destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan is a global fear, but only 10 percent of Pakistanis saw terrorism as their biggest worry, according to an opinion poll released on Monday. For the vast majority economic issues such as inflation, unemployment and poverty were a greater problem, according to a survey by the International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based organization chaired by Senator John McCain.

Carried out in March, some of the survey's results have been overtaken by the pace of events in Pakistan, where the army launched an offensive in recent weeks in and around the Swat valley after Taliban militants moved stealthily closer to Islamabad.

Having sought a deal with the militants by agreeing to impose sharia, Islamic law, across a large chunk of the northwest, the government unleashed the army after sensing a change in national mood as more people realized the Taliban would not be appeased.

Moreover, 56 percent of Pakistanis said they would back any future Taliban demand for sharia in cities outside the northwest, including Karachi, Quetta, Multan and Lahore.
There were, however, some signs of a sea change over whether Pakistan should cooperate with the United States in counter-terrorism, with 37 percent of people saying there should be cooperation, compared with 9 percent 15 months earlier.