ISLAMABAD: According to the findings of a recently conducted survey, 49 per cent Pakistanis believe the incumbent government is responsible for inflation in the country.
Institut de Publique Sondage d’ Opinion Secteur (IPSOS) a Paris based multinational market research company, Pakistan Chapter conducted a survey according to which respondents stated that price hikes have impacted all socio-economic classes in Pakistan, with those at the lowest rung of the class system suffering the most.
The survey, conducted from October 28 to November 4 with interviews of over a thousand respondents, revealed that half of the Pakistanis blame the federal government for inflation. Only 15 per cent of the respondents said they blamed previous governments for it, a narrative the PTI and PM Imran Khan have been attempting to establish since day one in power.
The IPSOS survey has revealed that price hike has been felt across Pakistan, bottom end socio-economic classes are most worried about it, and consider the federal government responsible for it.
Forty-nine per cent held the Centre responsible for the crisis, 17 per cent considered provincial governments responsible while only 8 per cent blamed it on an unknown mafia.
Five percent of the survey’s respondents declared shopkeepers responsible and 3 per cent each declared bureaucracy and the owners of mills responsible for the inflationary situation of the country.
The ratio of those considering the federal government responsible for inflation was the highest (59 per cent) in Balochistan, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 58 per cent, Punjab 46 per cent and Sindh 44 per cent.
The survey revealed that price hikes have affected a whopping 97 per cent of the respondents. IPSOS asked respondents whether they are worried about increasing prices to which 88 per cent respondents said they were. Twelve percent said they were not worried by the inflationary situation in the country.
The highest ratio of those worried by price hike was seen in Sindh with 91 per cent, followed by KP with 89 per cent, Punjab and Balochistan 86 per cent each.
According to the survey, 4 in 5 Pakistanis (83 per cent) faced cuts in their income due to the coronavirus pandemic.
