Public support split equally between opposition alliance, government narrative: survey

ISLAMABAD: According to a survey conducted by Pulse Consultant, public support is equally split between the objectives of the Opposition's Pakistan Democratic Movement and the government narrative.

Almost one-third of the respondents (39%) agreed with the government's narrative that the “opposition alliance was formed to hide their corruption".

However, almost a similar number of respondents (40%) believed that the movement was initiated to topple the incumbent government. The remaining 21% hold no opinion on the matter.

Interestingly, the survey findings highlight that the highest number of respondents in the last two years are 'indifferent’ (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s overall performance.

Is PDM building pressure?

Unveiling the statistics about the impact of the opposition's PDM, the survey discloses that less than half of the respondents (45%) believe that the government stands firm and has no worries against the Opposition's movement.

On the contrary, about one-third (35%) of the respondents feel that the government’s nerves are shaking due to the opposition’s movement but 20% of the remaining have no opinion on the matter.

The survey results also showed that the majority (55%) believe that the Opposition will never resign from assemblies.

More than half (53%) believe that Jamaat-e-Islami should keep its anti-government campaign separate from the PDM.

Is Pakistan heading in the right direction?

It seems that people have similar opinions as the previous quarter when they were asked about whether Pakistan is heading in the right or wrong direction. 

In July 2020, 52% had said Pakistan is moving in the wrong direction. Now, with a decline of 3%, 49% seem to be claiming the same.

Read more: PTI vs PDM: 45% of Pakistanis want mid-term elections to be held in the country: IPOR survey

In July 2020, 42% had the opinion Pakistan is moving in the right direction. In the October 2020 survey, the figure has gone down by 1% to 43%, while 8% of people had no opinion on the matter.

In the October 2020 Quarterly Performance Evaluation Survey (QPES) wave, almost half of the respondents (46%) had no belief in the prime minister's claim that “the country is out of an economic crisis".

Only 10% believed in the PM’s claim, while 27% believed it 'partially' and 17% had no opinion. With an improvement of 2%, now 63% of respondents believe that ‘economically, the country is moving towards the wrong direction’.

Nawaz Sharif advocating Indian narrative?

When questioned about PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif's stance and the allegations that he is propagating the Indian narrative, half of the respondents (51%) opined that Nawaz is advocating the Indian narrative, 23% didn’t agree and a quarter (26%) did not respond.

Similarly, more than half (53%) of the respondents believe in the government narrative that Nawaz is not as sick as he says and that he left the country on false medical grounds.

Almost a quarter (26%) of the respondents are aligned with the PML-N narrative that he is sick and will return after treatment.