Islamabad:
Most Pakistanis do not approve of the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in their country, with only 14 per cent terming it a good thing and many believing it will have a negative impact on the already tense US-Pak ties, a new survey has found.
While they do not look upon the unilateral US action favourably, Pakistanis are also uncertain about their own government's role in the military operation that killed bin Laden.
The findings are from a Pew Research Centre survey that finds that anti-Americanism is rampant in the country though it remains more or less at the same level it was before the bin laden killing.
"Most Pakistanis disapprove of the US military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, and although the al Qaeda leader has not been well-liked in recent years, a majority of Pakistanis describe his death as a bad thing. Only 14 per cent say it is a good thing," the Centre said on its website.
The survey also found that many Pakistanis believe the US raid on bin Laden's compound will have a negative impact on the already strained relations between the two sides.
Just 12 per cent of the people surveyed expressed a positive view of the US and only eight per cent said they had confidence that US President Barack Obama would do the right thing in world affairs. In fact, Obama's ratings are as low as former President George W Bush's were in 2008.
However, the survey that was done after the raid showed little change in Pakistanis' opinion of the US, as compared to a poll conducted before the Abbottabad raid.