People increasingly losing confidence in PM’s claims of overcoming economic crisis: survey

KARACHI: The number of people losing confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan's claim of coming out of economic crisis has risen to 57 percent from 38 per cent in July 2021, reports the quarterly survey of the Pulse Consultants.

The Pulse Consultants solicited responses from a sample size of 1,800 people during October 4-11. Similarly, those considering a wrong direction of the economic policies has also increased by 19 percent from 56 percent in July, to a whooping 75 percent now.

According to the Pulse Consultant's quarterly survey, the number of people losing faith in PM's economic policies is around 57 percent coupled with a drop in those who were confident that the prime minister will be able to turn the tide.

In July 21, 17 percent respondents expressed confidence in PM’s policies, which in the current survey has dropped to seven percent. Regarding questions about the direction of the economic policies, 56 percent respondents in July 21 found them to be in the wrong direction, but three months later it has risen by 19 percent to 77 percent. On the contrary, those perceiving them to be on the right track has dropped to 24 percent from 43 percent in July.

The Pulse Consultants found 79 percent population of Punjab considers that the government's economic policies were headed in entirely the wrong direction. This was followed by 73 percent in Sindh, 67 per cent in KPK, while 59 percent in Balochistan. The quarterly survey found as many as 98 percent respondents complaining of inflation, which was 92 percent in July. Whereas only two percent found a drop in inflation.

When the respondents were asked about the country's major concern, 77 percent complained that to be inflation, whereas 35 percent found corruption, 25 percent unemployment, 11 percent loadshedding, while 10 per cent termed inability to meet expenses as their biggest problem.

As many as 61 percent respondents found fault with government's policies as the cause of current financial crisis, whereas 30 percent found this to be the outcome of the previous government's heavy debt undertakings.

The Pulse Consultant also quizzed the respondents about the performance of PM's Adviser on Finance and Revenues, Shaukat Tarin. As many as 53 percent rejected his actions, while a slim minority of 13 percent approved his working, and 29 per cent found him to have done moderately well. This is a big drop in public response from July's survey when 38 percent respondents were not satisfied with his performance and 35 percent had expressed their satisfaction with Shaukat Tarin.