Citizen’s Trust in Political Leadership and Parliament of Pakistan: A Comparative Study of Punjab and Sindh

Abstract

Present study compares the level of public trust in political leadership and the parliament in two provinces of Pakistan: Punjab and Sindh. By applying ordinal logistic regression models, study finds that respondents from Punjab had significantly more trust in their leader and parliament of the country as compared to the participants from Sindh. The variable, government performance, was observed to be the major predictor of public trust in political leadership and parliament between Punjab and Sindh. Additionally, people’s interest in political affairs and conflict resolving behavior of leadership were two other variables which significantly predict public level of trust. The study suggests that respondents who were more interested in the political affairs revealed a high degree of trust in leadership and parliament. Conversely, participants who suffered from the lack of leadership interest in conflict resolving behavior showed low level of trust in both leadership and parliament in both provinces. It is concluded that public trust and distrust are significantly associated with the socio-economic development of the country. Present study may help to understand the factors that may cause public distrust in leadership and parliament of the country. ______