Islamabad, June 21 : A new poll conducted in Pakistan by a US-based group has found that nearly three-fourth of the country’s population wanted President Pervez Musharraf to resign or be impeached.

Nawaz emerged as the most popular politician with 86 percent approval, which is up from 74 percent in January. 42 percent were of the view that Nawaz’s party the PML-N would emerge as the clear winner in a national election while only 32 percent supported the PPP, according to the poll.

Conducted by the Washington-based group ‘Terror Free Tomorrow’, the poll also found that nearly 58 percent of the Pakistanis favoured negotiating with Taliban militants rather than fighting them, and 52 percent held their US allies in the war on terror “most responsible” for violence in the country.

The findings of the poll were released last evening.

The poll found 50 percent of respondents wanted talks with Al Qaeda, and 19 percent wanted the government to fight the local Taliban. Only eight percent blamed Al Qaeda and four percent the Pakistani Taliban for violence in the county.

Osama Bin Laden’s approval rating (for the violence in the country) rose to 34 percent from 24 percent in January, according to the poll.

Most Pakistanis generally view extremists and their leaders negatively, with only 19 percent of respondents approving of top Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Baitullah Mehsud and 62 percent opposing the presence of Arab and Uzbek Al Qaeda fighters in the country. (ANI)