Two siblings separated at birth and brought up in very different milieu meet each other as adults and offer a study in contrast.This hackneyed storyline of Mumbai cinema could well capture the political history of India and Pakistan as they complete 60 years of existence as independent political entities. The first ever Indo-Pak opinion poll, though confined to big cities on both sides of the border, brings out this stark contrast.

The Indian Express-Dawn News-CNN-IBN poll seems to have caught Pakistan in a rather low and negative mood, at least vis-à-vis its political leadership, in the last week of July and the first week of August. The urban Pakistanis are angry with the state of affairs. They are angry that they do not have access to basic rights and liberties, that they cannot speak their mind without fear, that they do not have the power to change their government. They are unhappy for they believe that things have deteriorated under General Pervez Musharraf: whether it is corruption or militancy or sectarian conflict, the proportion of those who believe things got worse is twice as much as those who think otherwise.

Events in the last couple of months have made matters worse for Musharraf. An overwhelming majority disapproves of the attempt to remove Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and is happy with the decision of the Supreme Court to reinstate him. The Lal Masjid action has also boomeranged, with less than one-third of the urban Pakistanis willing to share the General’s reasoning. The rest either disapprove of the action or question the wisdom of even contemplating such an action inside a masjid. All in all, it is bad news for Musharraf. For every one urban Pakistani who wants him to stay, there are two who want to see his back. This reflects in the ratings of the government and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as well.

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