Pakistan's first-ever public survey specifically designed to measure the mismatch between citizen expectations and public resource allocation, was launched on Monday at a Citizens' Roundtable in Islamabad, convened by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) Consulting that led stakeholder engagement and communications for the report's public launch on findings independently researched by Institute for Public Opinion Research (IPOR). Experts from academia, think tanks, judiciary, legal profession and media gathered to dissect its findings.
The National Citizen Survey 2026 was conducted by IPOR through face-to-face, in-home interviews with 5,155 voting-age citizens between August 23 and September 5, 2026, using a four-stage stratified sample representing all four provinces, both rural (60%) and urban (40%) areas, and all major age, gender and income groups. The survey, delivered a blunt verdict: rising electricity and gas prices are the single most-cited concern of Pakistani citizens nationwide - yet federal health spending amounts to a mere 0.1% of the Rs18.771 trillion national budget, dwarfed 400 times over by the 42.9% swallowed by debt servicing alone.
About 19% of citizens named rising electricity and gas prices as Pakistan's number one problem - more than any other issue in the country; 42.9% of the federal budget goes to debt servicing alone - more than defence, health, education, pensions and subsidies combined; 18% of citizens said they were personally asked for a bribe by a government official in the past year - hard evidence behind Pakistan's low global corruption ranking; 91% said it was difficult to start or run a business in Pakistan today, with taxes named as the single biggest obstacle.
Not one public institution surveyed - not parliament, not election commission, not Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) - commanded the complete trust of a majority of citizens; 42% now trust social media more than television for their news - even as 56% blame the internet for declining social values; 79% called the rise of drug use in Pakistan "extremely dangerous"; 66% of citizens viewed Pakistan's rising national debt as a grave concern, including 49% who called it "extremely concerning." 43% viewed reports on Pakistan by foreign-funded NGOs and think tanks as either contrary to facts and exaggerated, or driven by a foreign agenda - nearly double the 25% who saw such reporting as fact-based.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recorded the highest levels of public confidence among all institutions tested (33% and 23% complete trust, respectively), well ahead of parliament (15%) and Revenue Department (13%). 60% said Pakistan's education system did not meet the needs of a modern economy; 68% viewed Pakistan's IMF programme as either harmful or of no benefit to the general public. What makes the findings hard to ignore, researchers say, is their consistency: the gap between citizen priorities and public spending holds across all four provinces, cutting across urban and rural areas, income levels and age groups alike.
The survey pointed that nearly one in five citizens cited the sharp rise in the cost of everyday goods as a leading concern, while unemployment ranked third nationally. Taxation emerged as the single biggest complaint of the business community, with an overwhelming 91% of respondents describing it as difficult to start or operate a business in the country. Mamoon Bilal, Executive Director of Pildat Consulting, delivered the opening remarks, while Tariq Junaid, Executive Director of IPOR, presented a detailed walkthrough of the survey's methodology and outcomes.