Imran Khan waves to his supporters during a rally in Multan, Punjab province. File

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Some latest on ground assessments about the standing of different political leaders and political parties have shown Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as the most popular countrywide but Punjab has started changing its mood, a report said.

Quoting unnamed informed sources, it said that the vast popularity gap between PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab has started shrinking in favour of the latter. The difference in terms of their popularity, which was around 15 per cent high for the PTI a few months back, has come down to around 5 per cent in the province.

Countrywide popularity gap between the two leading political parties still shows PTI considerably far more popular than the PML-N. However, in the case of Punjab, the PML-N has shown improvement and is close to giving good competition to the PTI in the general elections in the province.

These sources, while referring to a latest survey, said that the countrywide present popularity of the PTI is higher than its popularity in 2018, when the last general election was held.

In the case of PML-N, the party’s popularity is less than where it stood in 2018.

It is believed that the PML-N’s post-April 2022 unpopularity in Punjab, which has been its stronghold, has seen improvement during the recent months and after the return of Nawaz Sharif from self-exile.

Next five weeks, before the Feb.8 general elections, are said to be critically important for the political parties as well as the voters. As the election campaign by the political parties will gain momentum with every passing day, it is said, the voters’ trend will also change.

The surveys and assessments about the election results become more relevant when done close to the polling day.

A survey conducted by Gallup in June-July last year, had shown that 38 per cent respondents strongly like PTI, 16 per cent strongly like PML-N, 10 per cent strongly like Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), 15 percent strongly like Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), 9 percent strongly linked Jamaat-e-Isoami, 6 percent strongly like Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Among politicians, according to the last year survey, the positive approval rating of Imran was the highest at 60 per cent followed by Saad Rizvi and Pervaiz Elahi 38 per cent each, Shah Mehmood Qureshi 37 per cent, Nawaz Sharif 36 per cent, Shahbaz Sharif 35 per cent, Maryam Nawaz 30 per cent, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi 28 per cent and others.