Successful handling of the pandemic appears to be the strongest point of Imran Khan govt. In a Twitter poll conducted by Dr. Moeed Pirzada, prominent TV Anchor and Editor of Global Village Space more than 30% of respondents (almost 32% out of more than 9,000 voters) thought that corona pandemic handling was Imran Khan government’s strongest point.
Imran Khan Govt has completed 03 years in Office (Aug18-Aug21); what in your opinion has been its best achievements?
— Moeed Pirzada (@MoeedNj) August 25, 2021
Another 26% considered economic performance as the best part of Imran Khan Govt but more than 28% also thought that the PTI government’s pro-poor programs like Ehsas are the best part of this government.
Dr. Pirzada’s polls timed with the government’s plans to put forward its three-year achievements and successes. Today, Thursday, Aug 26th, PM Imran Khan along with his cabinet and advisors is presenting an overview of the government’s three years’ achievements in an event planned at Convention Centre Islamabad. PTI government took power on Aug 20, 2018, after winning the 25th July 2018 general elections.
Are Twitter Polls credible?
Moeed Pirzada had thrown more than 10 poll questions. Results can be considered skewed since most of those who follow him are urban youth with a significant percentage of Pakistani diasporas who live abroad in the Middle East, US, and the UK. And is common knowledge that this segment of Pakistani society is overwhelmingly supportive of Prime Minister, Imran Khan.
Nevertheless, these random polls are a rough indicator of public opinion amongst Pakistani or Pakistani origin youth. Twitter polls can be considered credible in the sense that unlike surveys conducted by various polling agencies, respondents in a Twitter snap poll are not pre-selected.
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Each one who votes, in such a snap Twitter poll, has a registered Twitter account and while fake or double accounts do exist the general sense is that each Twitter account can be used only once for voting.
Twitter is conducting audits of Twitter accounts on a regular basis and the percentage of fake or dysfunctional accounts is decreeing as comprehensive as a few years ago. Amongst the 9000 plus respondents of this particular question, only 13% thought that a strong response to India PM Narendra Modi was a significant achievement of PM Imran Khan.
WHO had appreciated Pakistan’s pandemic handling
Impressions of poll respondents are not in isolation. Most international governments and international organizations have praised Pakistan’s handling of the pandemic. In September 2020, World Health Organization counted Pakistan to be amongst the seven countries in the world whose pandemic handling was an example for the rest of the world to be followed.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a media briefing had explained that Pakistan deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to combat Covid-19. Mr. Tedros had further explained how Pakistan did that by pointing out that the country utilized its community health workers – and their networks – who had been trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children for polio surveillance, contact tracing, and care.
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Many western diplomats in private discussions have told GVS that Pakistan’s early creation of the National Command and Coordination Center (NCOC) has played a huge part in the country’s robust management of the pandemic.
NCOC is headed by Planning minister, Asad Umar. This body operating from Islamabad has provided a central framework for coordinating the response of five provincial governments, subordinate territories, and around 140 districts across the 800,000 square kilometers of Pakistani land with more than 220 million population.
From GVS Political Desk with additional inputs from the News Desk in Islamabad.