General elections are around the corner; hence we will be seeing results of many surveys of different organisations. That is fine, like all other democratic nations there should be surveys, opinion polls, at this stage I feel necessary to appeal to our media that it must focus an important element of benchmarking in this whole process. In my opinion, IRI surveys are not reliable by any means; I believe that only elections can determine the popularity of political parties.
The next elections will decide which party is popular among the masses. Surveys are not the best way to predict the results of general election. The common voter is generally not influenced by the trends (shown in such surveys); there is always an error margin of 5-10 percent in every survey. But our media hardly takes such scientific rules in consideration. Furthermore benchmarking is important, as is comparative analysis.
DR SAIFUR REHMAN,
Lahore, January 28.