Nawaz Sharif's PML-N most popular party in Pakistan: Survey

Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party's popularity has gone down by a massive 22 per cent among likely voters, according to a survey.

The survey, conducted by the International Republican Institute, has shown that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif group) has witnessed an increase of 3.7 per cent in its popularity.

The increase in the popularity ratings of the PML-N comes despite stringent criticism by cricketer-turned-politician Imran of the PML-N and its leaders.

The survey shows that the PML-N is currently the single most popular party in the country.

The survey posed the question among voters that if the elections for the National Assembly were to be held next week, who were the respondents most likely to vote for.

Conducted between July and August 2012, from a pool of 6,001 respondents, the survey compared results from an earlier survey carried out in February 2012.

According to the IRI survey, 28 per cent of the respondents agreed to vote for PML-N, closely followed by the Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf at 24 per cent.

The Pakistan Peoples Party took the third spot with 14 per cent votes whereas the Muttahida Quami Movement polled 3 per cent.

Tehreek-e-Insaaf party has been facing internal rifts in recent times. One of its vice presidents, Shireen Mazari, resigned this week in protest against the party's policies.

According to the survey, 91 per cent of the people believed that Pakistan was heading in the wrong direction.

Respondents termed power shortage and inflation to be the two most important issues being faced by Pakistan.

Seventy nine per cent people vowed to cast their votes in the next elections, 12 per cent did not want to vote, while 6 per cent are not yet fully ready.