President Musharraf

WASHINGTON, March 18: A vast majority of Pakistanis, about 86 per cent, rates President Pervez Musharraf favourably, says a survey by a major American organization.

The report by the Washington-based Pew Research Center also says that 60 per cent Pakistanis view President Musharraf "very favourably." This is "by far the highest rating of any leader in the survey," says poll director Andrew Kohut. "Pakistanis expressed highly favourable opinions of their president."

The Pew Research Center is a non-profit and non-governmental organization, which specializes in opinion surveys. Its reports are widely respected in Washington's academic circles.

The researchers surveyed public opinions in nine countries, asking a randomly selected group of people questions on various subjects, ranging from the war in Iraq to their opinion about their own leaders and about other major US allies in the war on terror.

The survey says that most Europeans had no views about Gen Musharraf and a third or more in each of the nine countries except Pakistan gave no opinion. Views of President Musharraf were more positive than negative in Turkey, and were about evenly divided in Britain, the United States, Russia, and Jordan. Negative opinion of Gen Musharraf was strong in France, Germany and Morocco.

Majorities in every country surveyed except the United States had an unfavourable opinion of President Bush, with negative ratings ranging from 57 per cent in Britain to 85 per cent in both France and Germany.

Outside the United States, the support for Mr Bush is the highest in Britain, 39 per cent. Six-in-ten have an unfavourable view of Mr Bush in Russia, and two-thirds - 67 per cent - feel this way in Turkey.


-DAWN