Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has gained more popularity in
masses during the last one year compared to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N, says a survey report launched by the
Sustainable Development Policy Institute launched here on Thursday.

According the results, PTI’s public preference raised from 24 percent to 33
percent while the PPP and PML-N’s declined on the same front from 23 percent to
19 percent, and 30 percent to 17 percent respectively.

SDPI’s earlier two surveys, Political Barometer I & II, had pointed out the
deviation of political parties from their manifestos during the year.

Speaking on the occasion, SDPI’s Executive Director Dr Abid Suleri said rupee
appreciation showed stability in the country’s economy but the general public,
in spite of giving its reward to the PPP and PML-N, was more inclined to give
the rein of country to the PTI leadership.

He further said the government’s performance at the federal level was not
satisfactory due to which the provincial governments accused the federal
government of poor performance.

SDPI Deputy Executive Director Dr Vaqar Ahmed said people were more interested
in domestic and local issues instead of dialogue with the Taliban. The hopes
and expectations of people were higher before the budget 2014-2015 but the
budget disappointed many in terms of a cut-down on educational and health
allocation, he added.

He said budget was mainly focused on infrastructure development such as Metro
Bus, and drastically ignored the prevailing energy crisis and other
macroeconomic indicators including food price inflation and employment
opportunities etc.

He maintained that before the PML-N took over the federal government in 2013,
its manifesto promised increase in tax to GDP and broadening the tax net
whereas according to the survey the government granted a lot of tax exemptions
to its favourite politicians.

Shakeel Ahmed Ramay, head of Climate Change, SDPI, said majority of the opinion
poll surveys around the world had their own strengths and limitations.

It may be mentioned that the survey was conducted in the first half of May in
32 randomly selected districts including Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Dadu,
Larkana, Sukkur, Quetta, Zhob, Gwadar, Turbat, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore,
Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Rahim
Yar Khan, Bhakkar, Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Dera Ismail Khan,
Peshawar, Tank, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Haripur, and Swat.

Stratified random sampling technique was used to integrate various demographic
elements into the survey. The first stratum was based on ethno-linguistic
lines, the second was based on provincial population, the third on gender and
the fourth on urban-rural divide.

The survey also distinguished between four different age groups and took into
account respondents from across different income groups and educational levels.

The reference for the demographic sample of the survey was the 1998 population
census data available online. The urban-rural sample, however, was calculated
based on the sample of the 2011-2012 Household Integrated Economic Survey.

Source: http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?267912-SDPI-survey-PTI-popularity-increased-in-one-year-to-33-PPP-and-PMLN-down-17-and-19-respectively