A new survey revealed that most of Pakistan’s youth still sees the army favourably but a sizable proportion of young people have no trust in the institution whatsoever.

Carried out by Voice of America, the survey gave respondents four options regarding their trust in the army. VOA conducted the survey through IPSOS.

Out of the survyed group, 53% said that they had complete trust in the army while 15% said that thye have no trust at all.

In addition, 21% of the respondents said they somewhat trust the army and 10% said they are somewhat mistrustful.

The survey also split its findings by province and revealed at 64% of the youth in Balochistan expressed trust in the military, the highest of any province. The number is lowest in Punjab with 51%.

However, the biggest proportion of people who have no trust in the army is highest in Sindh with 17%.

The survey also revealed that army is the most trusted institution in the country (74%) followed by Supreme Court (58%) and Media (54%).

An IPSOS director told VOA that the results of the survey seem to be consistent with recent surveys. He added that the trust in army shown by the surveys has grown from 55% in 2023, and had grown to 72% by December.

Gallup Pakistan’s Bilal Gilani said that their surveys have revealed that many people, especially in rural areas, do not immediately think of political interference when they think about the army.