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May 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
British aid officials insist that their cash is carefully monitored and is not
being spent on laptops.
The controversy illustrates the fraught nature of giving aid to Pakistan. The
country has one of the lowest rates of tax collection in the world – at
about 10 per cent of gross domestic product, compared with about 29 per cent
for the UK – yet spends billions of dollars on a growing nuclear arsenal
while collecting billions more in aid from donors.
Despite concerns about corruption, the country is to become the biggest
recipient of British aid by 2015 – receiving £446m in 2015.
The links are so tight that DFID has even installed Sir Michael Barber, former
head of Tony Blair’s Downing Street “delivery unit”, as education
adviser to Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab’s chief minister.
At the same time, the laptop giveaway is hugely controversial in Pakistan, a
country where 17m children are not in school and half the adult population
is illiterate.
Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, is accused of bribing the
electorate ahead of elections expected next year when his brother, Nawaz,
will be one of the candidates for prime minister.
Some enterprising students have put their computers up for sale on the
internet or sold them to electrical stores, while education experts say
Punjab should be spending its money on classrooms or blackboards.
Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy said a digital giveaway was not the answer to
Pakistan’s education crisis,
“The virtues that an education system ought to have – integrity,
outreach, basic necessities – those have to be fulfilled before one gets
into hi-tech glitzy stuff,” he said.
However, supporters of the programme dismiss allegations of corruption.
They say laptops are only distributed to those who meet stringent criteria
based on exam results and that each computer benefits an entire family not
just an individual.
Mian Naseer, who sits in the Punjab Assembly for the PML-N party of Nawaz
Sharif, said the criticism was motivated by political jealousy. Only
students who hit exam targets were being given computers, he said.
“There is no corruption,” he said. “This is something that
should be done and should be done all over Pakistan.”
A DFID spokesman said British cash was being used to fund stipends for girls
so they can afford to go to school and being put towards low-cost schooling
for the poorest.
“UK funding is not substituting Government of Punjab spend on education,”
he said. “In fact, the Government of Punjab has actually increased the
amount it spends on education by around 13 per cent this year, thanks in
large part to the work it has been doing with DFID.”
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