Two out of three Pakistanis favour Sharia: Survey

Nearly 67 per cent or two out of three Pakistanis support the imposition of Sharia as the only law of the land, showed a survey by Gallup Pakistan and the Gilani Research Foundation.

The results of the survey show a more radicalised Pakistan as a similar survey carried out by the same agency seven years ago showed only 51 per cent of the people surveyed had said that the Sharia should be the only law applicable to their society.

Today, only five per cent of those surveyed this year have said that they are not in favour of the Sharia being imposed on society.

The Gallup Pakistan-Gilani Research Foundation survey said that they asked a nationally representative sample of men and women from all four provinces of Pakistan (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtukhwa) what described their understanding of Sharia and its implementation in Pakistan, and 67 per cent said that the Sharia should be the only law, 24 per cent said that the Sharia should be the law, but not the only law (that is other legislation is also possible), while five per cent said Sharia should not be the law of the land, while four per cent said they had no opinion on the matter.

In 2010, 51 per cent said Sharia should be the only law, 30 per cent said Sharia should not be the only law applicable, eight per cent said Sharia should not be the law of the land and 11 per cent said they had no opinion or view on the matter.

If a comparison is done over the change in the mindset of Pakistanis, then the poll finds that there is a 16 percent increase in the proportion of Pakistanis who have become more radicalized and believe that Sharia should be the only law, while there is a six per cent decrease in the proportion of Pakistanis who say Sharia should not be the only law.

The survey was carried out recently. Around 1846 men and women took part in it, and they were from both rural and urban areas in all four provinces.

The margin of error in the survey was approximately ± 2-3 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level.

 Pakistan population is equivalent to 2.62 per cent of the total world population and ranks sixth in list of countries (and dependencies) by population.

About 39.2 per cent of the population is urban while the median age in Pakistan is 22.7 years.

The Gilani Research Foundation is headed by Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani, a pioneer in the field of opinion polling in Pakistan. He is also the Chairman of Gallup Pakistan. 

(ANI)