On Afghanistan, 61 per cent said it would be bad if the Taliban took over that country, while 87 per cent said Taliban groups who seek to overthrow the Afghan government should not be permitted to have bases in Pakistan.
WASHINGTON: Public opinion in Pakistan has turned sharply against the Taliban and other Islamist militants but Pakistanis still do not trust the United States and President Barack Obama, a poll showed on Wednesday.
The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, conducted last month as Pakistan’s Army fought the Taliban in the Swat Valley, found that most Pakistanis see the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda as a critical threat to the nuclear-armed country.
Those Pakistanis who view Islamist militants and local Taliban as a critical threat to their country rose to 81 per cent, up from 34 per cent in a similar poll in late 2007, the University of Maryland polling project found.
Respondents who described al-Qaeda’s activities as a critical threat to Pakistan rose 41 percentage points to 82 per cent in the same period.
The findings were based on face-to-face interviews of 1,000 adults in the Urdu language across Pakistan from May 17-28. The findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, the University of Maryland polling group said.
The university’s Programme on International Policy Attitudes conducts polls around the world. In the poll, seventy per cent voiced sympathy for their government over the Pakistani Taliban in the fight for Swat. Seventy-two per cent said they were confident the Pakistan’s Army could handle the situation.
The shift in Pakistani public opinion on Islamist militants operating within Pakistan represented a “sea change” caused by “widespread revulsion” at brutal tactics and undemocratic policies of the Taliban when they briefly controlled Swat, poll research director Clay Ramsay said in a statement.
He added that the poll indicated “the US is resented just as much as before, despite the US having a new president.” Sixty-two per cent of those questioned expressed low or no confidence that Obama would do the right thing in world affairs.
Only 32 per cent stated they thought his policies would be better for Pakistan than predecessor George W Bush’s policies. US drone attacks on militant camps within Pakistan were called unjustified by 82 per cent of those in the poll. Large majorities opposed all aspects of the US-led war in neighboring Afghanistan.
On Afghanistan, 61 per cent said it would be bad if the Taliban took over that country, while 87 per cent said Taliban groups who seek to overthrow the Afghan government should not be permitted to have bases in Pakistan.
Obama’s election did not boost the popularity in Pakistan of the United States or US policies, the poll indicated. Seventy-two per cent disapproved of the war in Afghanistan and 79 per cent wanted it ended now, while 86 per cent disapproved of Obama’s decision to more than double the number of US troops in that country, to 68,000, by the end of 2009.
Asked about Obama’s goals, 93 per cent agreed with the view that he sought to impose American culture on the Islamic world, and 90 per cent supported the notion that he wanted to weaken and divide the Muslim world, the survey showed.
(Source: The News)
