46pc Pakistanis reject Imran as new political brand

KARACHI: Nearly 46pc Pakistanis do not agree with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s self-proclamation of a new political brand and free of any corruption. Similarly, 62pc of people consider the wrong distribution of tickets for PTI’s debacle in KP local government polls, while 30pc think it was due to corruption and bad service delivery.

This viewpoint came to the fore in another opinion poll, conducted by the Pulse Consultants using a sample size of 2000 people, from Jan 13-21. The pollster sought opinion over PM’s self-declaration of a new political brand, reasons for the setback in phase 1 of KP LG polls, Murree tragedy, the verdict in PTI’s foreign funding case, and the presidential system.

Prime Minister Imran Khan during a meeting of his party’s spokespersons had described himself as a new political brand for not being involved in any corrupt affairs.

When the Pulse Consultants sought opinion over the assertion, 46pc people did not agree with it, while 19 pc fully agreed with the idea, 30 pc agreed to some extent, and four percent did not respond to the query.

Regarding the reasons for KP PTI’s poor show in the first phase of LG polls, 62pc

attributed the setback to the wrong distribution of tickets to local government candidates, while 30 pc described corruption as the major reason and six pc did not respond to the query. When the same question was put to people of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, 65 pc described corruption and bad service delivery as the foremost cause, while 32 thought it to be due to wrong distribution of tickets and three pc said they do not know anything about it.

Another question sought their opinion over PTI federal ministers claim of being ‘cleared’ by the tribunal in the Foreign Funding Case, 61pc responded in the negative, while 30pc termed it to be the correct perception and 9pc did not respond to the question.

As many as 77pc respondents described the Murree tragedy as a natural disaster, while 21pc held the government responsible for it, and two pc avoided reply. To another question about the presidential system, 48pc rejected the idea outright and favoured the parliamentary system, while 26pc expressed approval for the presidential system and 26pc said they don’t know anything about it.