Lahore: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is the party chosen by the majority of respondents in a public opinion poll released recently. The Punjab chief minister has been chosen by the majority as the best candidate for the Prime Minister’s office. The younger Sharif is followed by his elder brother and the former PM, Nawaz Sharif, and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan as desirable candidates for the PM’s office. After the top three, Maryam Nawaz is the most popular personality for the PM’s office, followed by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto; PML-N MNA Kulsoom Nawaz and PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. After the 38 percent who supported the ruling party were supporters for the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (27 percent) and the Pakistan People’s Party (17 percent). Asked who they would vote for if general elections were held on a week’s notice, majority of respondents from Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa opted for parties in power in these provinces. In Baluchistan, the simple majority supported the PTI. Asked to name a reason why they would not vote for the PTI, the majority cited its chief Imran Khan’s political naivety as their reason. The sample for the survey held by the US-based Global Strategic Partners (GSP) consisted of 4,540 respondents from 73 districts in all four provinces. The survey was a nationally representative sample of voting-age population. The data collection concluded in September 2017. The interviews were all in-person and in-home. The findings of the survey showed that Pakistanis were angry about the Panama Papers scandal and supported the Supreme Court’s verdict. But the respondents also strongly approved of the PML-N’s term in office with a job approval rating of 58 percent. The new PM Shahid Khaqan Abassi received somewhat lower marks, with 43 percent saying that they approved of his performance. Thinking about the country as a whole, 52 percent said things were headed in the wrong direction, while 47 percent believed the country was going in the right direction. Those who showed optimism regarding the country’s overall wellbeing generally felt good about security, law and order, and development. The 52 percent that expressed pessimism about the country’s trajectory cited concerns about the economy, load shedding, unemployment, political instability and corruption. Rating some of the major issues in Pakistan, an overwhelming 73 percent said the law and order situation was ‘very good’. As many as 69 percent of the respondents said the security situation has improved. A simple majority of 40 percent of the respondents described the load shedding situation as ‘very bad’. Asked whether the situation would improve further next year, 56 percent believed law and order would get better; 31 percent held that it would remain the same and just 11 percent said it would get worse. Regarding security, 54 percent of the respondents opined that it would get better next year. In a question as to what is the single most important issue facing Pakistan, 21 percent picked unemployment; 18 percent corruption and 13 percent load shedding. Published in Daily Times, November 2nd 2017.