The public’s opinion

The picture revealed, in a recent poll, is that of a country in denial.

Pakistan, thanks to our complete inability to stay out of the news, has become the world’s favourite country to analyse, dissect, count and figure out. We complain about being the focus of so much attention yet eagerly lap up what foreigners are saying about us. The latest focus of outrage is an opinion poll conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center, which would seem to confirm everyone’s worst fears about Pakistan. According to the survey, Pakistanis on the whole would have preferred Osama bin Laden not being killed by the US; don’t want the army carrying out military operations against militants; and harbour a deep mistrust of India. And, most worryingly for the government, President Asif Ali Zardari is staggeringly unpopular.

The last point drew government ire. In a massive case of overreaction, the government attacked the survey, speculating that it may be a plot to destabilise democracy in the country. Criticisms were also made that the survey sample was too small and so the results should be discounted. Leaving aside the fact that the government should have more important things to do than comment on an opinion poll, the government obviously has no idea what constitutes a statistically significant sample. Pew had a sample of 2,000 people from a geographically diverse area, which fulfils the criterion for a scientifically valid survey. As for Zardari’s unpopularity, that is hardly surprising given the economic and security crises the country is facing. In a country where Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP remains the only party to win power in two consecutive elections, anti-incumbency feelings tend to be even stronger.

What should truly worry the government is not the survey but what it says about the country. By a margin of 20 percentage points, India is seen as a greater threat than the Taliban. Concerns about sovereignty remain limited to the US, with Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad not being of great concern. The picture revealed is that of a country in denial. While the poll shows that a majority of the country sees terrorism as a problem, we disapprove of any strong measures to tackle it. This schizophrenia is by far the biggest problem the country faces today.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2011.