Islamabad, Dec 25 (ANI): A recent survey in five South Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - has found that about half of Pakistani population remained unaffected whether there was democracy or dictatorship prevailing in the country.

Generally, people in South Asia were found to be overwhelmingly supporting democracy.

Democracy was most popular in Sri Lanka, while India was third after Bangladesh in terms of the percentage of people expressing support for the democratic system, found the survey -- State of Democracy in South Asia.

The idea that the country should be governed by the Army was endorsed by six out of every 10 responses in Pakistan and Bangladesh, said the report.

The least support for Army rule was found to be in India, the report said and added that the higher the education, lower would be the support for the Army.

The study was jointly conducted by New Delhi-based CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) in collaboration with the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm and Department of Sociology, Oxford University.

The people not only approve of democratic arrangements, they find it suitable for their own contexts. Seven out of eight responses in the region, higher than in East Asia, held that democracy was 'suitable' or 'very suitable' for their own country, the Daily Times quoted the findings of the study as saying.

It also found that the citizens of South Asia did not simply like democracy; they prefered it over authoritarian rule. With the exception of Pakistan, about two-thirds of those who responded preferred democracy over any other form of government, said the report.

For every one response that endorses dictatorship, there are six that prefer democracy, which compares favourably with the ratio obtained in East Asia, Latin America and post-Soviet era countries of Europe.

However, about a quarter in other countries and half the respondents in Pakistan said democratic or non-democratic forms of government made no difference to them. Also, there is majority support for army rule in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the two countries in the region with a record of army rule. (ANI)