75% of Pakistanis want Musharraf to leave

Survey shows 75 pct Pakistanis want Musharraf out
11.02.2008 | Dawn – The Internet Edition
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ISLAMABAD, Feb 11 (Reuters) Seventy-five percent of Pakistanis want President Musharraf to quit, according to a survey released by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute Monday. The IRI survey also said Musharraf’s job approval rating had dropped to a new low of 15 percent. IRI said the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto on December 27 had “greatly impacted the political landscape”, and her Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) was “benefiting from both a wave of sympathy as well as a backlash against the government”. Conducted in late January, the survey showed 50 percent of respondents said they would vote for the PPP, while 22 percent favoured the party of Nawaz Sharif, and only 14 percent backed the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid). Only 33 percent of respondents to the IRI survey supported the Pakistan army “fighting extremists in North West Frontier Province and the tribal areas”. Just nine percent thought Pakistan should be cooperating with the United States in the war on terrorism, though 65 percent recognised that Taliban and al Qaeda’s operations in the country were of serious concern. The survey showed only 13 percent of respondents blamed al Qaeda for Benazir Bhutto’s killing. Sixty-two percent said the government was responsible. The survey polled 3,485 men and women from urban and rural constituencies. Nearly 77 percent of respondents said economic issues would be the main factors determining how they would vote. Asked if there was one leader who was the best person to handle the country’s problems only eight percent named Musharraf.