PILDAT releases results of Nationwide Public Opinion Poll assessing Quality of Governance and Democracy across Federal and Provincial spheres – – Public Approval on Governance in Federal and all provinces improves except for Sindh

  1. Nationwide respondents rate

    10 out of 27 governance indicators of the Federal Government positively

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    compared to only 6 indicators rated positively in 2015

  2. Governance in Punjab is rated

    the highest across nationwide respondents with 67% approval rating followed

    by Governance of KP at 38%; Governance in Balochistan at 26% while Sindh

    is rated the lowest nationwide with 25% approval rating of its Governance

  3. Respondents from KP rate KP

    governance most positively on 18 out of 25 governance indicators; Punjab

    respondents rate 15 out of 25 indicators positively, followed by Balochistan

    at 12 out of 25 while respondents from Sindh rate only 2 indicators out

    of 25 positively

  4. Only 35% of respondents are

    hopeful of an improved performance by the ECP in the next General Election,

    compared to 38% in 2015

  5. Nationwide respondents term

    terrorism as the biggest current issue followed by inflation and energy

    crisis; in 2015 energy crisis was rated as the biggest issue

October 25; Public Approval Ratings for the

Federal Government, though has shown improvement from 2015, remains negative

on most governance indicators as per PILDAT’s Public Opinion

Poll on the Quality of Governance and Democracy during the third year of the

Currently Elected Federal and Provincial Governments, June 2015-May 2016.

The Federal Government has received positive Approval Ratings on 10 out of

27 Governance indicators compared to 2015 Public Opinion Poll by PILDAT in

which respondents rated positively 6 out of 25 indicators.

These public views are part of a PILDAT Nationwide

Public Opinion Poll on the Quality of Governance and Democracy in Pakistan

upon the completion of the third year of the current Federal and Provincial

Governments. This poll was conducted between August 11-August 31,

2016 and included 3,610 Pakistani citizens from

rural and urban areas and 85 districts across Pakistan.

The Federal Government received its highest

Approval Rating for the Governance indicator on Immunization of Children

(77%). At the lowest rung was Management of Unemployment

for which Federal Government received the lowest Approval Rating at 31%. The

Approval Rating of the Federal Government has crossed the 50% mark and became

positive on 4 Governance indicators since 2015 namely: Development

Programmes with approval rating of 54% in 2016 compared

to 44% in 2015; Use of Technologies for Better Governance

rated positively by 54% respondents in 2016 compared to 48%

in 2015; Foreign Policy Management with 54%

approval rating in 2016 compared to 44% in 2015 and Tax Collection

which received 53% approval rating in 2016 compared to 38%

in 2015.

A comparative assessment

of Federal Government’s Approval Rating on individual Governance indicators

is given in Table 1:

Table

1: Federal Government’s Comparative Scorecard (National Evaluation) 2016

Legend: Green colour depicts Approval Rating for the Indicator

is more than 50% while Red colour indicates Approval Rating for the indicator

is less than 50%.

Public Perception of Performance

of Premier slides

58% of the nationwide respondents have

termed Prime Minister’s performance positively in 2016 while 41% have

rated it negatively. This has seen a sharp decline of 15 percentage points

from 73% approval rating in 2015.

Figure 1: Public Perception of the Performance of

the Prime Minister

Governance in Punjab is rated the highest

among the four provinces across nationwide respondents with 67% approval rating.

Governance in KP has received second position with 38% nationwide respondents

rating it positively. Governance in Balochistan has been rated positively

by 26% respondents while governance of Sindh is rated the lowest nationwide

with 25% approval rating (Table 2).

When respondents were asked to evaluate performance

of their own province on individual Governance indicators, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

received the most positive Approval Ratings for 18 out of 25 indicators (in

2015 the KP residents had rated 17 out of 25 indicators positively). KP is

followed by Punjab where Punjab residents have positively rated 15 out of

25 indicators (in 2015 the residents had rated 8 out of 25 indicators positively).

Balochistan has bagged the third position with Balochistan respondents positively

rating 12 out of 25 indicators. Governance in Balochistan has received the

highest improvements in public opinion in the past one year as the respondents

from Balochistan had only rated 1 out 25 indicators positively in 2015. For

the second consecutive year, Sindh once again is at the bottom where Sindh

respondents have only rated 2 indicators out of 25 positively. The highest

Approval Rating for any provincial Governance indicator was accorded to the

Punjab for Immunization of Children at 83%. The lowest Approval

Ratings of 12% were accorded to Sindh on the Governance indicators of Poverty

Alleviation and Management of Unemployment.

Table

2: How did nationwide respondents rate governance in provinces?

 

Table

3 shows a comparison between province-wise Approval Ratings accorded for each

individual Governance indicator in 2016 from the residents of each province.

Table

3: Provincial Governance Approval Ratings 2016

Legend: Green colour depicts Approval Rating for the Indicator

is more than 50% while Red colour indicates Approval Rating for the indicator

is less than 50%.

Figure

2: Number of Indicators Rated Positively for Each Provincial Government

 

Public Opinion on the Overall

Quality of Democracy remains positive

While majority of the respondents (54%)

nationwide remained confident and positive about the quality of democracy

in Pakistan in 2016, this has seen a decline by 4 percentage points from 2015

when 58% respondents rated it positively.

Public opinion on Quality of Democracy was

gauged using 8 Indicators out of which 5 indicators have received positive

public approval ratings. These include: 

  1. Government’s

    Performance at Ensuring Freedom of Media and it Operations Within Confines

    of the Law: 64%

  2. Media’s Performance in

    Ensuring a Balanced and Responsible Coverage: 51%

  3. Performance of Federal Government

    in Democratic Governance 55%

  4. Overall Quality of Democracy:

    54%

  5. Transfers of Powers at the Local

    Level: 51%

    In comparison, following indicators have

    received a low public opinion rating:

  6. Effectiveness of the Federal

    Cabinet: 47%

  7. Respect for Human Rights: 48%

  8. Sovereignty of State: 48%

It is interesting to note that there is a

divergence of 13 percentage points between Government’s performance

at ensuring freedom of the media, and the media’s performance in ensuring

balanced and responsible coverage. A public Approval Rating of 64%, the highest

amongst all Core Democracy Indicators, shows that the although respondents

are highly satisfied by the Government’s performance in ensuring media’s

freedom, their perception of a balanced and responsible coverage in turn by

the media itself hangs in balance (an Approval Rating of 51%) and can swing

either way.

The overall picture points to a continued

trust in democracy but one that is nuanced and qualified. It is pertinent

to point out the Public Perception is neither highly Satisfied nor Dissatisfied

on any of the Indicators as the highest Approval Rating goes up to 64% and

the lowest goes down to 47%, pointing to a very large proportion of Respondents

who are sitting on the fence and may change their opinion based on the next

2 years of the current democratic and electoral cycle.

Table 4:

Public Opinion Scorecard on Quality of Democracy: 2016

The Election Commission of Pakistan continues

to suffer from negative public perception as only 35% of nationwide respondents

are hopeful of an improved performance by the ECP in the next General Election.

This has seen a 3 percentage point decline since 2015 when 38% believed the

ECP would improve its performance in conducting future General Election. 28%

Respondents have serious doubts about the Election Commission and believe

that the ECP’s performance will fare worse in the next elections. 32%

of all respondents believe that the ECP’s performance at holding free

and fair elections in the country will be no different from holding earlier

elections.

Biggest Current Issue Facing Pakistan

is seen to be Terrorism

The biggest current issue seen to be facing Pakistan in 2016

was Terrorism by 23% of all respondents. In 2015 Public Opinion

Poll, the greatest issue was termed to be Energy Crises by

25% of all respondents. Inflation and Unemployment

had been seen as amongst the greatest issues in 2015 and continue to be seen

that way in 2016. It is noteworthy that Corruption has made

its way into the top five issues facing Pakistan as 12% of all respondents

term it as the biggest problem in the country.

Table 5: Biggest Current Issue Facing

Pakistan