Poor Pakistan is best helped by providing aid with strings attached

POOR Pakistan: only on the cricket field does it ever seem to have any luck.

First a series of leaked classified US military documents left its government scrambling to deny suggestions its secret service was covertly supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Then a plane on a domestic flight crashed in bad weather, killing all 150 passengers on board. Meanwhile, the country’s commercial capital, Karachi, has been gripped by riots following the assassination of a local politician, leaving dozens dead. Now the Pakistani government – unpopular to begin with – is being criticised for its slow response to the appalling recent floods, the worst in decades.