Saturday, December 20, 2008

Pakistanis Pessimistic about Nation's Progress

WASHINGTON, Dec 19: About 88 per cent Pakistanis feel their country is headed in the wrong direction, 59 per cent say the next year will be worse than the current year while 67 per cent believe democracy has made no difference to their wellbeing, according to the findings of an opinion survey by the US-based International Republican Institute.

The poll was conducted from Oct 15 to 30 and the results were issued on Friday. The randomly selected sample consisted of 3,500 adult men and women from 223 rural and 127 urban locations in 50 districts in the four provinces. The margin of error for the sample was 1.66 per cent in 19 out of 20 cases.

The poll indicates a high degree of pessimism and discontent.When asked if they felt the country was headed in the right or wrong direction, 88 per cent responded wrong direction while 11 per cent said right direction. These ratings are slightly worse than the sentiment in January 2008, shortly before the nation went to the February elections polls.

When asked about their personal economic situation over the past year, 73 per cent said it had improved, 12 per cent said it had worsened and 14 per cent said it had remained the same, essentially unchanged since January.

Read it all here.

Pakistan and the USA have something in common. The solution for both nations is a deep sweeping change of heart among those in power (especially tribal and local chiefs), turning them from the works of darkness to the Divine Light revealed once and for all in Jesus Christ.

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