Almost 80 Percent people in Pakistan believe that the country is headed towards the wrong direction, according to the latest survey conducted by France based research company IPSOS.
The final report of the survey was released on Tuesday, The News International reported that only 23 percent people believe that the country is moving in the right direction and 77 percent believe otherwise.
For the majority of the people, unemployment was a worrying issue which saw an 11 per cent rise since last year, followed by increasing inflation and poverty.
More than 1,000 people from all over the country participated in the survey which was conducted between December 1 and December 6, 2020.
Last year, in the fourth quarter, 21 percent people believed that the country was headed on the right track, while 79 percent had a contrasting opinion.
This year, 36 percent people said that their current personal financial situation is weak, 13 percent characterised it as strong and 51 percent said it is neither strong nor weak, The News International said.
Meanwhile, the last year’s data show that 38 percent believed that their financial situation is weak, 5 percent viewed it as strong and 57 percent put it in between.
Province-wise assessment, the report found that a “poor financial situation” featured in almost all the provinces and inflation ranked number 1 among the list of top 4 contributors to the desperate situation.
“In Sindh, the second-highest contributor was viewed to be unemployment (20 percent), followed by Covid-19 (17 percent) and poverty (16 percent). In Punjab, 23 percent people felt the province’s poor financial situation stems from unemployment, 8 percent thought it was due to Covid-19 and 14 percent believed poverty has a role,” The News International said.
Meanwhile, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about 18 percent believed unemployment, 12 percent viewed coronavirus and 8 percent called poverty as the reason behind the province’s financial situation.
Similarly, in Balochistan about 25 percent responded by blaming unemployment, a mere 2 percent felt Covid-19 played a role, and 25 percent felt it was poverty that has led to the province’s dismal state of financial affairs, said Pakistani media outlet citing the research report
