ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: On the International Day of Democracy observed worldwide on Sunday, a non-government organisation released a ‘public verdict’ on the 100-day performance of federal and provincial governments.

Titled ‘Performance of Governance and Democracy in First 100 Days of National and Provincial Governments’, the verdict is based on a nationwide opinion poll commissioned by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat).

According to the poll, the performance of federal government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is satisfactory as 62 per cent of men and women interviewed across the four provinces have given it a good rating and 32pc bad rating.

The prime minister’s policy of seeking harmony with armed forces and provincial governments has received the highest rate of approval. The government’s policy of addressing key foreign policy issues has also been praised with 57pc of people expressing their satisfaction over its handling of relations with the United States, China and India.

The endeavours for solving the problems of electricity shortage and terrorism have received a cautious approval. Reservations have been expressed over Mr Sharif’s selection of his cabinet members and efforts for resolving the issue of corruption and nepotism.

The Net Performance Rating (NPR) has been declared better for relationship with armed forces, opposition parties and provincial solidarity. However, dissatisfaction has been shown by people over the problems of electricity shortage, nepotism and fighting corruption.

Punjab (56) has given very high NPR to the federal government, followed by Balochistan (22), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (-4) and Sindh (-12).

Provincial governments

The Punjab government gets the best rating among the four provinces. Its NPR-index is 73, while the Sindh government gets the poorest NPR (-2). The NPR for the KP government stands at 26 and for Balochistan government at 17.

According to the poll, the highest performance rating in the education sector has been achieved by Punjab whose NPR-index is 64, compared with KP 62. The NPR-Index of Sindh stands at -8 and Balochistan at -12.

On healthcare Punjab scores the highest NPR at 49, followed closely by KP at 45, Sindh at -24 and Balochistan at -33.

Best performing chief minister

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been declared the best performing chief minister in the popularity contest in which people from across the country voted irrespective of their province of residence.

According to the poll, 59pc people voted for Shahbaz Sharif, 18pc for Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, 9pc for KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and 4pc for Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch.

These ratings may have been partly influenced by the size of provinces’ population which is largest in Punjab followed by Sindh, KP and Balochistan, according to Pildat.