WHERE PAKISTAN IS HEADING ‌? A Survey exploring the Hindsight of Educated Class on where Pakistan is and where should it go?
SYNOPSIS
Looking at the Survey results from 408 respondents on a wide variety of issues, the following clearly emerges:
A majority of Pakistanis have a negative outlook on the situation in the country.
The top three problems identified by Pakistanis are as follows:
Lack of leadership Corruption Illiteracy
A majority of respondents feel that an Islamic way of life is the best system
Malaysia, a modern, developed Muslim state is seen as a role model for Pakistan to evolve into
There is no clear understanding of how an individual can help bring change and reform into society
ANALYSIS The survey results show that there is an embedded feeling of hopelessness amongst most Pakistanis about their current situation. The problems they have identified as top priorities for the country are not secular in nature i.e. poverty, feudalism etc but rather morality based in nature. For e.g. corruption and lack of integrity amongst our leadership is a failure of morals of us collectively as a nation. Hence the answer to the top problems in the country is also a value based moral system rather than a secular system such as democracy or capitalism. Moreover, most of the respondents look up to Malaysia as an ideal example of where they would like to see Pakistan rather than Saudi Arabia which actually has the closest semblance to an Islamic system in place (albeit far from perfect). Hence even though the respondents would like to think that an Islamic system is the solution to their problems, they would rather live in Malaysia where most of their problems would be solved without an Islamic system – but a Muslim face rather than Saudi Arabia – which actually is far more institutionally Islamic than Malaysia even though it is far from flawless in terms of Islamic systems themselves.
STATISTICS
408 ‌ The Total Number of Respondents
180
Age Profile
160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Above 45
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
35 ~ 45
25 ~ 35
18 ~ 25
Below
Educational Profile
Phd
MS
Graduate
Or Below
Other
250
Occupational Profile
200 150 100 50 0 Employed
250
200
150
100
50
0
Self- Employed
Student
Geographical Location
Retired
Other
THE ANSWERS … To The Questions ...
Q1: How do you rank present political, economic and law & order situation of Pakistan? Excellent Good 2% 1% Average 15%
Worst 45%
Bad 37%
200
Q2: In you opinion what are the top most problems faced by Pakistan?
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0 Lack of leadership
Corruption
Iliteracy
Other
Religious Extremism
Silence of Self centered masses over approach of major national Individuals issues
Feudalism
Corrupt Judiciary
Weak law enforcement agencies
Poverty
Q3:Till to-date, the world has seen several different ways to manage the state of affairs of a country, in you opinion which of the following is best suited to solve problems of Pakistan?
Other 8%
Secular Democracy / Capitalism or free markete economic system 24%
Communism / centrally planned economic system 7%
Islamic way of life comprising of its unique sociocultural, economic and political system 59%
Monarchy 2%
Q4: Which of the following countries will Pakistan be like after required Improvement? Japan 10%
Other 14%
Iran 11%
Malaysia 33%
China 16%
Germany 5%
Saudi Arabia 11%
Q5: What should be the role of any individual to bring reforms in the country?
He doesn't have time to think about all of the above 2% Its systems fault, an individual cannot do any thing 7%
He should make a constructive contribution in his circle of influence only and forget whats happening at macro level. 22%
He should take active part in the protest against creating disturbance in the country at any level. 15%
Other 6%
He should responsibly elect suitable government, and wait to see how things turn up 19%
He should raise his voice against any issues creating disturbance in the country at any level. 29%
IN THE END WE CAN SEE… The most critical take away from this survey is that even though there is consensus on what the problems and solutions are for society at a macro level, at the individual level there is a lot of confusion. Perhaps it is because we are all trying to solve the problems of society in our own little silos – reinventing the wheel, each generation, each sub-group – that we cannot leverage the enormous synergies that will be created if we all first collectively decide what all of us need to do at an individual level and then going ahead and doing it to bring reform in society.