NEW DELHI, Aug 17: Most Pakistanis see India as an enemy state and do not foresee peaceful relations with it until the Kashmir issue is first resolved, an opinion poll said on Sunday.
Sponsored by India’s Outlook magazine and carried out by Gallup-Business Research Bureau of Pakistan, the results were published in Outlook’s latest issue.
They reveal that 54 per cent Pakistanis see India as enemy, 31 per cent see it as a rival country and only 15 per cent see it as a potential friend.
The poll said 79 per cent Pakistanis answered in the affirmative when asked if it was necessary to resolve the Kashmir issue first for the establishment of peaceful relations between India and Pakistan. While 19 per cent did not see this as necessarily true, two per cent said they did not know the answer.
Asked if they would accept converting the Line of Control into an international border as the only solution to the Kashmir problem, 69 per cent disagreed and 29 per cent said it was a feasible solution. Two per cent said they did not know.
As many as 47 per cent Pakistanis, when asked what they thought of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s recent initiative, said it was a gimmick.
Only 26 per cent said it was a serious effort, while 27 per cent respondents did not have an answer.
About the most important political issue before them, 64 per cent said it was Kashmir, 19 per cent said democracy was the main issue, while 17 per cent saw fundamentalism as the real problem.
Most Pakistanis, a whopping 62 per cent, would not trust the United States as a peace broker between India and Pakistan. However, 33 per cent said Washington could play a role and five per cent had not made up their minds.
Interestingly, despite their hardline on bilateral issues, most Pakistanis felt that most Indians generally wanted to live in peace with Pakistan.
They were asked if they saw a strong yearning for peace among Indians to which 62 per cent said yes, 32 per cent said no, while six per cent had not decided.
What is their opinion about Kargil? “Useful operation,” said 40 per cent. “It was a mistake,” said 31 per cent, while eight per cent did not know.
Should Pakistan have trade relations with India? Yes, said 63 per cent, but 35 per cent said no and two per cent had no opinion.
The closest call was on a question pertaining to religion and its impact on peace. Are the religious factions a roadblock to Pakistan-India relations? Yes, said 42 per cent. No, said 43 per cent, while 15 per cent did not take sides.
Are the political parties a roadblock to Pakistan-India relations? Yes, said 43 per cent, No, said 45 per cent, and 12 per cent said they did not know.
Most Pakistanis believe that the Indian army and India’s RAW intelligence agency are a roadblock to Pakistan-India relations with as many as 63 per cent answering in the affirmative and 28 per cent saying no, while nine per cent did not know the answer.
Is the Pakistan army and the ISI a roadblock to Pakistan-India relations? Yes, said 32 per cent, No, said 52 per cent, while 16 per cent of the respondents said they did not know the answer.
How do you rate President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts in ushering peace with India, they were asked. It was a serious effort, said 52 per cent, a mere gimmick, said 23 per cent and 25 per cent said they did not know the answer.
The survey was conducted among 1,338 statistically selected respondents on August 3 and 4, 2003.
Nearly 50 per cent of the sample comprised women, according to Outlook. It said the sample represented a cross-section of various income and education segments of the population.
There is an error margin of plus or minus 3-4 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level, the magazine said.
The survey covered all four provinces of the country. The sample was divided roughly proportional to the population of each province in the total national population.
The fieldwork was carried out in 14 cities including, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta. The other cities were, Sukkur and Hyderabad in Sindh, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Sahiwal and Sargodha in Punjab and Mardan in the NWFP.