Time machine enabled “statistical” study: How Imran Khan and Dr Qadri’s protests failed in April before they actually took place in August – by Riaz Al Malik Hajjaji
I just love how an end April-beginning May PEW survey is used to explain events 4 months later in end August. Good thing that this survey was conducted in April and May before the Model Town Massacre and before the Election Commission whistle blowers and before most of the dirt on PML N and judiciary became mainstream.
The Pew must have done the survey in ASWJ/LeJ and LeT Madrasses where the popularity rating for Nawaz Sharif remains quite high as evidenced by visible and joint PMLN-ASWJ rallies in the last few days.
Even Mariam Nawaz is re-tweeting ASWJ-LeJ people.
I will request PEW to hide the second half of the report. In a survey whose finding are meant to bolster the public opinion of Nawaz Sharif vs the army, the Army has nearly 20% higher rating than Nawaz Sharif!
Good thing no one is questioning sample size = 1203. Otherwise PTI/PAT will tell them that tens of thousands more “face to face interviews amongst Red Zone protestors” paint a different picture.
Good on PEW and all those peddling this report it to justify Gullu-Cracy, Saudi-Cracy style Rigged-elections-by-PML N murderers-Democracy in Pakistan. It is obvious that all those using this report also had a time machine in April to travel to the future in August.
In other news, PEW, Tim Craig (Washington Post), Express Tribune were all invited for a 70 course meal to Jatti Umra/Raiwand where CM Shahbaz Sharif dragged them by their hair and then requested their help to bail out his brother, PM Nawaz Sharif while other PML N relatives, ooops, Ministers like Hamza Sharif, Mariam Sharif, In Law Dar, nephew Abid Sher Ali etc gave fiery speeches to squash dissent and do photo ops with LeJ and LeT
Thousands of protesters have been camped out for more than a week within earshot of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s house in Islamabad demanding that he resign from office. Some have carried stick figures of Sharif wearing a noose, creating a global image that the prime minister is embattled less than 15 months after he returned to office for his third term.
Yet an extensive new survey of public sentiment in Pakistan reveals that the ongoing demonstrations are hardly reflective of the views of most Pakistanis.
The annual Pew Research Center survey of Pakistan finds that 64 percent of residents have a favorable view of Sharif, a solid rating that has essentially remained constant since Sharif’s returned to power last year.
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Additional comment by A Z:
A number of such articles have recently appeared in legendary Western newspapers like NYT and The Economist. They rely on their local bureaus or correspondents for reporting on smaller countries. Very few of these correspondents would muster the blend of guile and integrity needed to be impervious to Sharif’s ‘warmth’.
That Washington Post publishes a piece that amounts to little more than blatantly partisan propaganda is deplorable. The article starts by signifying that the survey suggests that Nawaz Sharif’s popularity remains intact despite the protests. Then later it craftily slips in that the survey in question was actually conducted several months before the current sit-ins were in the air. Some cunning, this.
The writer’s caliber and worldview is betrayed by the statement that the USD has a 100 to 1 advantage over PKR. This is some bizarre way of looking at the complex phenomenon of currency exchange rates.
The article also makes no mention of the massacre of innocent citizens perpetrated by the government in Lahore in the night of 17th June.
While it is a fact that Nawaz Sharif still retains wide popularity as their Poster Boy among the Punjabis in Pakistan, who account for over 60% of the country’s population, this article is written with intent to mislead by distortion and half-truth. The Washington Post may want to take note.