Pakistanis are “over” the competition with India

Pakistanis are "over" the competition with India

According to a recent survey, 49% of Pakistanis believe that air and land connections should be restored between their nation and neighboring India. This indicates that, despite the governments of the two countries’ shared history of hostilities dating back to 1947, people on both sides of the border may not necessarily support this idea.

Gallup & Gilani Pakistan’s study also showed that 32% of the adult men and women in the sample, who were nationally representative of the nation, answered negatively to the question, while 19% either did not know or did not respond at all.

The study was conducted among 1,023 men and women in urban and rural regions throughout all four provinces of the country by the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International.

This year, it took place from January 3 to January 18.

As per the poll, the projected margin of error at the 95% confidence level is between 2% and 3%.

Telephone surveys were the data gathering method employed.

Three-quarters of a century after their nations gained independence from British-ruled India in 1947, thousands of families are still split apart.

Mass sectarian migration, marked by violence and suffering on both sides, was sparked by Britain’s division of the two states as its empire began to wane following World War II.

Independent estimates of the 1947 Partition show that over a million people were murdered in religious riots, and that almost 15 million people migrated, mostly on the basis of religion.

In August 2019, the already strained ties between the two nations worsened even more when New Delhi removed the long-standing semi-autonomous status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Islamabad terminated commerce with New Delhi and downgraded diplomatic ties with the contentious decision immediately.

Since then, the two neighbors have not squandered an occasion to criticize one another in regional and worldwide fora.

The “sole” constructive development in terms of relations has been a deal signed in February 2021 that ended the almost daily skirmishes along the Line of Control (LoC), a de facto boundary that splits the scenic Jammu and Kashmir between the two neighbors.

Indian and Pakistani military veterans see the prospect of a full-fledged conflict between their two nuclear-armed neighbors as “inconceivable” and believe it is unlikely.

Additionally, they want “political engagement” to settle long-standing conflicts, such as the Kashmir dispute.