WASHINGTON: India and the United States are both more popular in Pakistan than the extremists, shows a new opinion survey.

The survey by the Pew Research Centre, which was partly released earlier this week, also shows that the price-hike has replaced energy shortage as the country’s number one problem.

As many as 97 per cent of Pakistanis see rising prices as their number one problem while 90pc people still say it is the shortage of electricity.

Know more: Nawaz's rating remains solid, Imran’s wanes: survey

The public opinion poll, taken in April and May this year, found that the United States and India, while wildly unpopular in Pakistan, earned higher favourability ratings than either Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Just 12pc of Pakistanis view Al Qaeda favourably while only 8pc say the same thing about the Taliban. Fourteen per cent Pakistani view the United States favourably and 13pc like India.

The favourable view of the United States, although low, marks a 3pce increase from 2013, when only 11pc held a favourable view of the US.

The surveyors also discovered that unfavourable view of the United States had declined sharply in recent years, from a high of 80pc in 2012 to 59pc this year. This was 72pc in 2013.

India too remains unpopular in Pakistan, with 71pc of respondents expressing an unfavourable view of it compared with 13pc holding a positive view.

While extremely low, this 13pc rating still ranks India higher than either Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

Still, Pakistanis continue to view India as a greater threat to their nation than either the Taliban or Al Qaeda. When asked which of the three groups posed the greatest threat to Pakistan, a slight majority (51pc) said that India did, compared with 25pc who answered with the Taliban and 2pc who said Al Qaeda.

In a separate survey of national priorities in Pakistan, 90pc also identified lack of jobs as the problem number one confronting Pakistan while 87pc saw the rising crime rate as their major concern.

An overwhelming majority – 76pc – described the increasing rich-poor gap as the country’s number one problem.

For 62pc, it is lack of health facilities and for 59pc it is the country’s corrupt leadership. Public debt is the most pressing problem for 58pc and for 57pc; it’s poor quality schooling.

Food safety comes after schooling with 52pc, followed by bad traffic, 52pc. Air pollution is a major problem for 40pc and water pollution is for 39pc.

Thirty-nine per cent Pakistanis are concerned about Shia-Sunni tensions and 28pc about the situation in Afghanistan.

The Indian influence in Afghanistan is a concern for 26pc.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014