Survey Reveals One in Three Pakistanis Hopeful About Successful Govt-PTI Talks

Survey Reveals One in Three Pakistanis Hopeful About Successful Govt-PTI Talks

ISLAMABAD: As a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the direction of talks between the government in power and PTI Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), a Gallup survey of Pakistan has revealed that one of three Pakistanis is optimistic about the dialogue process that was started amid heightened tensions between the two parties, The News reported on Sunday.

According to the poll, which included over 400 people, 44 per cent of Pakistanis are in full support of the talks, while 16% oppose them. A majority of people were unable to discuss the parleys in any way.

The report comes as the PTI is unable to take part in the fourth session of talks scheduled for January 28 at 11.45 a.m., based on its imprisoned founder, Imran Khan’s instructions.

The talks started in late December in an attempt to reduce tensions between the two parties. However, months of talks, which included three sessions in the first three sessions, and PTI submitted its long-awaited demand list in writing, have not made any advancement on crucial issues.

Khan called off this dialogue on Thursday, citing the government’s failure to establish an independent judicial panel to investigate the riots on May 9 and incidents linked to the opposition’s Islamabad protests in November 2024.

However, the party has since retracted its announcement, and its Chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, declared that the former prime minister had delayed the talks.

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The PTI’s attitude to the dialogue process has been a source of anger for the government, with a spokesperson from the government’s negotiations committee, Senator Irfan Siddique, saying that the PTI was making fun of the dialogue process.

Khan attended a meeting with his party’s negotiation committee prior to his next set of negotiations. The Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs, Rana Sanaullah, has expressed optimism that the government’s response to the PTI’s demands could prompt them to return to the table of dialogue.

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Negotiations are in the midst of uncertain futures. Participants in this Gallup survey were asked questions about the effectiveness of negotiations, with 45% of respondents having doubts and stating they were unable to discuss it at the moment.

However, 33 percent of Pakistanis believed in the negotiations’ outcomes, and 19% predicted that the talks would fail.

An extensive analysis of the survey results showed that males were more hopeful than females, as 41% of males and 25% of females had hopes of winning the negotiation.

Conversely, the opposition rate to negotiations was 21% for males and 16% for women. 55% of women who participated in the study expressed doubts about the success of the talks, whereas the rate was 35% for men.