Washington, July 31: Though terror groups continue to strike in their country, a majority of Pakistanis still consider India as a major threat, view America as an enemy and are far less concerned about Taliban and al-Qaeda.
While Pakistanis express serious concerns about the US, they have also deep worries about neighbour and longtime rival India than extremist groups within Pakistan, according to the prestigious Pew Research Centre opinion poll carried out inside Pakistan.
“When asked which is the greatest threat to their country – India, the Taliban or al-Qaeda – slightly more than half of Pakistanis (53 per cent) choose India, compared with 23 per cent for Taliban and just 3 per cent for al-Qaeda,” it said.
However, despite the deep-seated tensions between India and Pakistan, most Pakistanis want better ties with India.
Roughly seven-in-ten (72 per cent ) said it is important for relations with India to improve and about three-quarters support increased trade with India and further talks between the two rivals, it said.
Inspite of pumping in billions of dollars in economic and military aid, the US image in Pakistan was at its lowest ever among the 22 nations included in the poll. Fifty-nine per cent of the respondents described America as an enemy and only eight per cent trusted President Barack Obama.
The Pakistanis saw little threat from Taliban and al-Qaeda and only 25 per cent of the people said it would be bad for Islamabad if Taliban takes over again Afghanistan.
While 18 per cent said it would be good for Pakistan 57 per cent were not concerned.
State Department spokesman P J Crowley conceded that there is a huge trust deficit between the US and Pakistan.
“We understand and the Secretary (of State) in her recent trip and also in her trip last October understand that there’s a deficit in trust in our relationship. There are those in Pakistan who recall and sense that they were abandoned by the US and the international community, going back 20 years or more,” he said.
Crowley said the US has worked hard in recent months to try to turn this relationship around.
“I think we recognise that this was not going to occur overnight. We have tried to communicate forcefully to not only the government, but also to the people directly, that the US is committed to the future of Pakistan,” he said.
“We are, in fact, a partner. I think we’re not surprised that people want to see fruits of this partnership; that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. It goes back to what the Secretary announced in Islamabad last week concrete projects that ¿ on energy, on health, on education that will create tangible results so the people of Pakistan can see it. And when they see it, then we would expect to see those poll numbers prospectively improve,” he said.
The spokesman said the Secretary of State last week spent a lot of time engaged directly with the Pakistani people.
“I think coming out of the trip last week, we felt a change in tone. But we understand that this is a long-term proposition which we take seriously and feel is vitally important to, over time, demonstrate to the people of Pakistan that the United States is genuinely interested in a different long-term relationship with the country,” he said.
Crowley said the people of Pakistan have questions and concerns about the nature of US-Pak relationship.
“Likewise, as we’ve seen in recent days, there have been questions raised, and we are involved in a respectful dialogue with the government and the people of Pakistan,” he said.
“We do think that over time, people will begin to understand and see that there’s genuine and mutual respect and benefit for this relationship. And as people are able to see those benefits firsthand, then we would expect to see an improvement in not only the tone, but also the substance of our relationship. But we didn’t expect this to change overnight,” he said.
“We are going to continue to work hard to help people understand that there has been a fundamental shift by the United States and a fundamental shift by Pakistan in the nature of our relationship,” Crowley said.
Despite the prevalence of negative opinions about the US, Pew Research Center said most Pakistanis want better relations between the two countries.
Nearly two-in-three (64 per cent) say it is important for relations with the US to improve, up from 53 per cent last year, it said.
——Agencies