LONDON: The British government has hit back at criticism that one of its foreign aid programmes, designed to provide cash to some of Pakistan`s poorest people, is not only costly for UK taxpayers but also subject to corruption. A report on the aid scheme in the UK newspaper the Daily Mail ran under the headline: `Just when you thought it couldn`t get any worse... YOURcashis doled out in envelopes and on ATM cards loaded with money.

Reporting that: `Around 235,000 families pocket cash every three months to boost incomes, the Mail carried a picture of Pakistanis in Peshawar queuing at an ATM. Some of them, the paper said, were withdrawing money provided by the UK government.

Other newspapers in the UK have picked up the story, questioning why the UK is making so many cash transfers and raising the issue of whether the system encourages corruption.

The transfers are made under Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). The reports say that the UK`s Department for International Development is contributing over £200 million a yearto the BISP. The British contribution amounts to seven per cent of the scheme`s total costs but in the past UK taxpayers have contributed as much as 20pc. Defending the aid, the UK government says that the BISP programme helps 5.2 million of the poorest families gain access to food, health, clothing and school.

Pakistan is one of the UK`s highest priorities for foreign aid. Much of the British money is spent on education initiatives in Punjab, but there is also direct supportfor the country`s poorest people.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Conservative Member of Parliament, Nigel Evans, who is a member of the influential International Development Select Committee, said the cash transfers were `clearly open to fraud` While some of the BISP`s beneficiaries collect their money at post offices, others are given cash cards that enable them to withdraw cash from ATMs. The Dailp Mail quoted Saifullah Khan from Peshawar`s Khyber Bazaar as saying he got hold of his card after bribing one of his councillors who then registered him on the scheme. `I paid the money and my card was prepared,` he told the paper.

But British government officials working on foreign aid insist they have a `zerotolerance` approach to fraud. They argue that, far from encouraging corruption, cash transfers reduce the risk of money going astray.Conservative MP Nigel Evans says that cashtransfers should only be used as a short-term measure in emergency situations: `Anything that involves money needs to be properly scrutinised and is clearly open to fraud with money siphoned away when it ought to be directed to those most in need,` he said.

UK officials have praised Pakistan for introducing a biometric payment system with fingerprint checks which, they say, means British taxpayers can be sure that the help they provide does go to the less fortunate, as intended. They say that around the world UK aid supported cash transfers have helped 8.9 million of the poorest people over the last four years to buy vital food, clean water, clothing and health care.