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Washington: Most Pakistanis want their country to be a democratic Islamic state but are deeply distrustful of the United States and its war on terrorism, according to a poll released on Sunday.
Funded by the US Institute of Peace, or USIP, the poll was taken in the nuclear-armed nation before President Pervez Musharraf's six-week state of emergency and the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto last month.
Fully compatible
The results, released about six weeks before elections scheduled for February 18, show that a large majority of Pakistanis see democracy as fully compatible with Islam, the pollsters said. Democracy ranked especially high among the 60 per cent of respondents who wanted Muslim-based Sharia law to play a larger role in legal affairs.
"It shows there is no major Western-oriented secular sub-group in Pakistan. People want more Islam. They don't think Pakistan is pious enough or that Islamic values are adequately expressed in daily life," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a non-profit group affiliated with the University of Maryland that conducted the poll for USIP.
USIP is a non-partisan institution funded by Cong-ress to address issues concerning international conflict.
The poll, which has a 3.3 percentage point margin of error, surveyed 907 adults in 19 Pakistani cities from September 12-28, 2007. About 49 per cent of the respondents were women.
Pakistan, which has been ruled by the military for more than half of the 61 years since independence in 1947, was under emergency rule from November 3 to December 15, imposed by Musharraf, then military chief as well as president, to combat what he said were threats from militants.
Kull said a large moderate middle-bloc of voters could be seen in the 64 per cent of Pakistanis who said they support government reform of religious schools known as madrassas, which have been blamed for spreading militancy.
The poll showed that 59 per cent of the public want to hold the line against the encroachment of conservative Muslim mores known as "Talibanisation," he said.
But the results also indicated support for Islamist militant groups including Al Qaida among substantial minorities of Pakistanis, and illustrated the huge challenge facing the Bush administration as it pursues relations with its key ally in its war on terrorism.
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