Gallup polling of Pakistanis, conducted May 9-12, shows that the bin Laden raid has added to already largely negative views of the United States. Among Pakistanis who said they were aware of the U.S. raid, 64% claimed the action made them have a more negative view of the U.S., as compared with only 5% who said it made them have a more positive view.

Since Gallup began polling in Pakistan, views of U.S. leadership have never been positive, and although the 10% who approved of U.S. leadership was down from 18% in 2010, the change was not significantly different from polling results in 2008 and 2009. But disapproval of U.S. leadership has soared to 85%, a record and far higher than the 68% who said they disapproved in 2010--or the 60% who said so in 2008 and 2009.
The general disapproval among Pakistanis regarding U.S. leadership is clear from Pakistanis' expectations for future U.S. decisions: few believe that the U.S. will take what they believe to be the correct action--in this case, withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. A large majority of those (79%) aware of the U.S. action to kill bin Laden believes the U.S. should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan now that bin Laden is dead, but only 57% think the U.S. actually will withdraw its forces. As a comparison, 36% of Americans believe that there is still important work to be done in Afghanistan and U.S. troops should be maintained there.Clearly, the poll suggests that diplomatic relations between the United States and Pakistan will not be easy moving forward. Gallup writes that the polling data "reinforce[s] the significant diplomatic challenges that lie ahead for both countries."

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