TelegraphDavid Cameron has disclosed plans to almost triple British aid for schools in Pakistan, even as its government spent billions on military equipment.
The Prime Minister was criticised for offering to spend more than £600 million of British taxpayers’ money in a country whose government he admitted could waste at least some of the aid.
Visiting Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Mr Cameron announced that over the next four years, British aid for education in Pakistan could reach £650 million.
Britain’s last four-year budget, from 2009-13, allocated £250 million for education. The major increase in school aid could lead to four million Pakistani children attending school for the first time, officials said. It would also make the country the biggest single recipient from Britain’s growing aid budget.
Despite protests from some Conservative MPs, Mr Cameron is increasing aid spending, even as other departments see their budgets cut.
Pakistan spent barely 2 per cent of its annual budget on education, but more than 15 per cent went on defence.
Britain is cutting its defence budget by 8 per cent, cutting 17,000 military posts and scrapping warships and fighter jets.
By contrast, Islamabad is in talks with China to buy six submarines at a potential cost of more than £1 billion.
The Pakistani government may also spend another £1 billion on Chinese fighter aircraft.
Mr Cameron insisted that the support for education in Pakistan was in Britain’s long-term interests because illiteracy and poor schooling were a “root cause” of Islamic extremism and terrorism. But he conceded that the move would be controversial, and admitted that corruption and waste in Pakistan made it harder to justify British aid payments.
....
Many of Pakistan’s richest people “are getting away without paying much tax at all. That’s not fair,” he said.
A spokesman said
“That is especially the case with countries that can afford to spend billions of pounds on defence,” he said. “If they can afford submarines they can afford to educate their own people.”













































































Reply With Quote
