Musharraf popularity poll a fraud?

ISLAMABAD: A survey which showed that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's popularity would shoot up after he stepped down as army chief and became a civilian president may have been a fraud poll, a media report said on Monday.

The US-based International Public Opinion Polls (IPOP), which claimed to have conducted the survey, does not exist, the 'Daily Times' reported on Monday.

The report said the comprehensive directory of polling and survey research organisations in the US did not list any organisation by the name of IPOP.

The IPOP website (www.ipublicpolls.com) has no details about the organisation, including its postal address or phone number.

The PDF version of the poll posted on the website says that IPOP is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and gives its pin code as 02106, which does not exist on the US Post
Office's website, the report said.

A press release from IPOP had claimed last week that 74 percent of Pakistanis surveyed by it had said Musharraf's popularity would boost once he doffs his uniform. The release claimed that the survey was conducted in Pakistan's major cities through the internet and on telephone.

The poll, whose findings were carried by almost all local dailies, also said that 55 percent of respondents wanted Pakistan's political parties to take part in polls under Musharraf.

The survey was conducted before Musharraf resigned as army chief and prior to his swearing in as a civilian president on November 29, but the results were published only last week.