ISLAMABAD The Punjab Assembly has critiqued the tendency of the state to hand over state assets like public schools to NGOs simply to absolve itself of all responsibilities in that field. But what is even more perturbing in the way in which the US government, through USAID is intruding into Pakistans internal dynamics - attempting to bypass Ministries and normal procedures in order to implement their agenda as fast as possible. A recent example of this has been the, in this instance, failed attempt to bulldoze through a programme seeking access to the electronic media for running 'education programmes for children who are not attending school, in Balochi, Pushto and Urdu languages. Why Sindhi, Seraiki and Punjabi have been left out is of interest also, but that is another issue relating to the whole sensitive target audience the US wants to reach out to. How did USAID attempt to bypass proper procedures in this case? To begin with, through what one senior bureaucrat has called, the hyperactive Pakistani recruits of USAID, they managed to get a direct meeting with PEMRA and representatives of state run and private electronic media on suggesting that they would purchase air time for these programmes and would also spend $20 million for advance publicity - all in the name of 'free education through creating 'awareness and education programming. Yet the Education Ministry was not in the know of all this either, nor did USAID bother to bring them into the loop. Even the Information Ministry was not totally in the loop - since the whole plan was to simply bring in PEMRA. It was the PEMRA Chairman and USAID in cahoots with each other. Fortunately, Secretary Information, Mansur Sohail, was invited by PEMRA and that is how the Information Ministry came to know about this project The Minister put his foot down and refused to simply attend the PEMRA meeting without any of the Ministry procedures having been followed. As he informed TheNation, it was not the prerogative of the PEMRA to undertake such projects on their own without first going through the Ministry and also, as he pointed out, given that it was on Education, how could the Education Ministry be kept out of the loop? Clearly, USAID was intending to make its own syllabus also The Secretary stated on the record that the manner in which PEMRA and USAID had gone about the whole affair was irregular and unacceptable to Pakistans interests. Anyhow, the Information Secretary, being a sober and mature bureaucrat, insisted USAID should to the Ministry to discuss the whole project with him and the Minister - which is what happened on 23rd January 2010 and the whole project was reformed with the Ministry of Education also being brought into the loop. According to Secretary Sohail, it is now the Ministry of Education that will determine the content of the education programme. But when asked as to who will ensure that US content does not creep into the programme, he was not too sure. So one will have to wait and see whether USAID will manage to eventually dictate content and take control of the programme that will be reaching out to so many young, fertile and easily influenced minds. It is not just the private US security companies that are intruding in a proliferated manner in Pakistan. It seems all US departments are seeking to create their little niches of influence within Pakistan bypassing normal procedures, rules and regulations - and, unfortunately, there are many in Pakistan making all this easier