Adil Najam
Our most recent ATP Poll on which of Pakistan’s leaders did the most ‘harm’ to Pakistan was a sequel to our earlier poll on who did the most ‘good’, and like its predecessor this poll also generated quite a response – in discussion as well as in polling.
A total of 1,220 votes were cast in this poll by our readers and the discussion was, once again, interesting as well as insightful. As before, the current Pakistani government leadership was not included in the poll – although a poll to ‘grade’ the current government had been conducted recently.
We will leave a detailed analysis of what the results do or do not mean to our readers, but some key aspects are worth highlighting here.
- The poll was open for just around 2 full days and a total of 1,220 votes will polled. Once again, the poll and the discussion showed the passions as well as the thought that our readers put into the question. The poll was closed only after the general percentage for each leader had become fairly stable. Astute readers will note that the totals do not add up to 100. One assumes this is because the service we use simply truncates after the decimal point (instead of rounding it off).
- The result this time was even more clear than in the previous poll. Gen. Zia ul Haq was deemed to have done the most harm to Pakistan, with 42% of those who voted making him their choice. This was exactly twice as many votes as his closed challenger for this dubious title: Gen. Pervez Musharraf had that position in the poll, with 21% of our readers feeling that he had done the most harm to Pakistan. At the third slot was F.M. Ayub Khan with 12% of our readers considering him to have done the most harm. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto – with 10%, 9% and 5% votes, respectively – followed behind them.
- An interesting aspect this time is that the top three slots were held by the three military leaders in the mix – Zia ul Haq, Pervez Musharraf and Ayub Khan. It is indeed remarkable that 75% of our readers – a full 3/4th – believe that the most harm was done by one of these three military rulers!
- One surprise, at least to me, was the very high percentage of readers who considered Ayub Khan to have done the most harm. Before the poll I would have expected this number to be smaller. However, a number of readers made the argument that by setting the country on the path to military rule, it was he who caused the greatest harm.
- Another surprise – given the intensity of the argument against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto made by many in their comments – was that the number of people who considered Nawaz Sharif to have caused the most harm was about the same as for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (9% v. 10%). I am still not sure what this might signify.
- I hope that readers will help us in contrasting this poll’s results with the last poll. However, it is quite clear that Gen. Zia ul Haq is clearly the most reviled amongst our readers. The least number of people have voted for him in the ‘good’ he did (2%) and the most voted that he did the most harm (42%). Gen. Pervez Musharraf was ‘second’ in both polls and about a similar proportion (23% v. 21%) felt that he had done the most ‘good’ or caused the most ‘harm’ to Pakistan. Similarly Ayub Khan was ‘third’ in each poll (15% v. 12%, respectively). Although any statistical aggregation is problematic in such polls, overall it does seem that our readership is most sympathetic and partial to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – 36% of our readers considered him to have done the most ‘good’ for Pakistan while only 10% of the readership believe that he did the most harm.
Those are just some preliminary and quick thoughts from me in looking at the results. Do tell us what you think, dear readers.
Raeality and truth is that Ayub Khan has 100% harmed our beloved pakistan .He derailed the entire system by dissolving constitution assembly and grabed the power after death of our QUID,Ayub khan was chokidar[secury] appointed by his Masters.He surrendered for his own considerations won war of 1965.
I agree 100% with whoever has commented on facebook.
@Asghar, I think most of the people visiting pakistaniat are educated + actively takes interest in politics and therefore have read more history, listen to politicians, watch news and read articles by different editors (different school of thought). This puts them in better position to reflect reality on polls like theses then a person who is a farmer living in Jani-wala village, cannot read and his exposure is limited because of his hard life and limited knowledge.
Dnt take me wrong, I am not discriminating..
It is also common that a Chaudhry will tell his village people to vote for a politicians and they do it!
More comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “bhutto ko jub phansi huwi thi toh people’s party kai loghon ko bhooka maar deta tha jail mein …. ”
– “I am surprised Zulfiqar Bhutto got off so light, the man who lost East Pakistan! How about Sharif, remember the ‘mulk bachao’ scam he pulled off!Oh yes benazir – She of the billion pound money siphoning scheme! Oh well, I guess people have short memories.”
– “People do have short memories and since its the “dictator bashing” season, one is not supposed to recall what other “civillians” did to this country. That seems like being ungrateful to the democracy and those who “sacrificed” for democracy.”
– “it is the dictator bashing season that is why our innocent nation is not bothering to remember of what both civilian leaders Benazir and Sharif did to this country in the 90s in 1999 we had nothing left in our treasure cells, to me breaking laws by army generals is a little offense compared to the massive corruption crime of Sharif Brothers and Benazir-Zardardi… the people of should be concerned with the prosperity of the country, I mean personally speaking I don’t give a damn if an army general takes power, breaks laws of parliament as long as he is providing basic necessities of life to the citizens of Pakistan, as long as he is improving the economy of Pakistan, as long as he is getting investments in Pakistan creating jobs!!! May Allah bless us Pakistanis with a right and honest leader who can guide us to the right path! (aemeen)”
– “Pakistani awams are always blind like Bhuttoes and Nawaz Government. All Government of Armies are Better. Former President Musharraf, Zia-ul-Haq and Ayub Khan are always better then other.”
– people r keep on fighting at civillians and army leaders n all.. y dont they realise dat international situation is not a main problem…the real problem is to provide necessities to the common man…today the status of middle class is also pushing towards the lower class… its become hard for one man to feed the whole family…every leader grab dat they are the voice of common man…but did u see common man anywhere on the scene..?and also we all youth have much things to do for our country but do we have any proper channel or way to do something for our country… We have always been fighting on dat this person is right and this person is bad…hanging of bhutto was bad n all…y u forgot dat Liaquat Ali khan was also killed…but no one shouts on that….who did real good with the Pakistan and its nation…but we totally forgot them…and our present leaders left us in war of Pathan Punjabi Sindhi and Balochi….”
– “We must have to keep ourselves out of this..n try to make our ownself good..everything will get better itself… May Allah bless Pakistan and its people…”
– “No one can beat Zia in terms of damaging national unity. Musharraf is a distant second “
The analysis by A is intriguing.
Again shows that Zia and his legacy has been rejected strongly at least by this set of Pakistanis.
When Zia died, we saw largest crowed at his burial and Nawaz sharief cried at his grave, calling him shaheed and now after two decades he is the most un-liked person… Interesting.