ISLAMABAD: According to a Gallup Pakistan National Survey conducted in the year 1996 (20 years ago) respondents were asked if they thought conditions will improve if the government changed. To this, 50% said that conditions will improve if the current government changes, and 48% said that conditions will not improve even if current government changes. 2% did not respond.
The question was asked again in 2016 to enable a concrete comparison. In 2016, 44% said that conditions will improve if the current government changes, and 56%, a majority, said that conditions will not improve even if the government changes.
According to public opinion, there has been a 6% fall in the proportion of people who think conditions will improve if the government changes. There has been an 8% increase in the proportion of people who believe that conditions will remain the same even if government changes.
This is in line with a sense of pessimism prevalent across the country that stems from the realization that this country’s problems are more pervasive then understood in the age before media was freed. People seem to understand now that curing this country’s problems might not be in the hands of one government and it will take more time than that.