Pak overwhelmingly anti-US: Survey

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posted on 17 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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A Gallup International survey has showed that Pakistan remains overwhelmingly anti-US.

Islamabad: Despite being touted by the US as its 'frontline ally' in the global war against terrorism, Pakistan remains overwhelmingly anti-US, says a Gallup International Survey.

Although 76 per cent Pakistanis think that terrorism is a major threat to the country, some 61 per cent believed that the US is playing a negative role in the fight against terror.

In Pakistan, 13 per cent of the people questioned did not consider terrorism a threat. While 14 per cent believed that the US role was positive in the war on terror, 13 per cent said the US had played a neutral role and 12 per cent did not know about it, says The Daily Times newspaper.

According to the survey conducted in 63 countries, only Israelis (82 per cent) and Danes (58 per cent) think that the US was playing a positive role in the war on terror.

President George W Bush and his British ally Prime Minister Tony Blair have time and again hailed Pakistan as a 'frontline ally' in the global war against terrorism. Bush, particularly, has given full credit to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for the 'valiant' fight against terrorism.

However, many governments, thinktanks and the media do not share this unequivocal praise and have questioned not only the Musharraf regime's performance but also intent, with its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continuing to nurture the Taliban and foreign mercenaries who operate from the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Musharraf has denied that his government or the ISI had any role in fomenting terrorism.

However, in an interview to British TV Channel 4 last week, Musharraf agreed that the Taliban could be finding recruits from among the 450,000 Afghan refugees living in camps in and around Quetta in Balochistan province.

The overall outlook regarding Washington's role is somewhat balanced. The survey said that around 44 per cent of the global population believed the US had played a positive role, whereas 36 per cent considered its role negative, while 15 per cent maintained that it had been neutral.