Half of Pakistanis support Sharif government: survey

Islamabad: Fifty per cent of Pakistan’s population supports the present government, with 49 per cent favouring the opposition, a survey has found.

An opinion poll conducted between August 1-26 by the International Republican Institute (IRI), which works in countries important to the US’s interests, has revealed that 50 per cent of Pakistanis support the current Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by Nawas Sharif, the Dawn reported.

However, 49 per cent favoured the opposition.

The IRI took national representative sample of adults from 70 districts in all provinces of Pakistan, excluding the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Chitral.

A whopping 89 per cent people favoured the Pakistan Army as a national institution for efficiency and performance.

Forty-two per cent of the respondents said electricity was the most troubling issue that the country faced while 21 per cent felt inflation was the bane. But only 12 per cent of the people said unemployment was a major problem in the country.

Ten per cent of the population think terrorism is a major threat.