DNA Edit: Pak’s F-16 troubles – Islamabad’s use of US fighter planes has put it in jam

The noose appears to be closing around Pakistan. The Donald Trump administration has said it is examining potential misuse of US-made F-16 fighter jets by Pakistan in violation of end-user agreement during its recent spat with India. The US-made F-16, which the manufacturing company Lockheed Martin has long been trying to sell to India, is the pride of Pakistan’s Air Force that came Islamabad’s way in the shape of three squadrons, for services rendered to the Americans during the Afghan War in the 1980s.  

Subsequent supplies and upgrades were subjected to tighter end-user scrutiny after Pakistan entered the nuclear club, forcing Washington to invoke the Pressler Amendment, resulting in the suspension of F-16 sales, including even those that it had paid for. Although the sale of these prize fighter jets was resumed after 9/11 when the US sought Pakistani help for its war on terror, there was greater Congressional scrutiny and oversight on sales. It resulted in the specific condition that these aircraft be used only for counter-terror operations. Many American lawmakers had publicly mocked the explicit stipulation, predicting that the fighter jets would be used against India and not in counter-terror operations. From the benefit of hindsight, it would appear that the American politicians knew what they were talking.  

The PTI quoted a State Department official in Washington as saying that they were seeking more details on Pakistan’s blatant misuse of the end-user agreement, hinting that more action lies in store for Islamabad for breaching well-laid down conventions. Diplomatically speaking, this represents a triple-whammy as far as Pakistan is concerned. First, the US has defended India’s right to self-defence following Pulwama and second, they described the air strikes in Balakot as counter-terrorism.  That all this has put Pakistan under pressure is to understate the point. The Pakistan Information Minister’s office has threatened to sue India for “wrongly claiming” that an IAF MIG-21 had shot down a Pakistani F-16 in a dogfight in Kashmir. It is one thing to use F-16 when the heat of combat is on, but quite another matter to justify its use. 

A Pakistani Information officer tweeted that Lockheed Martin had expressed its annoyance over Indian claims and had confirmed that all F-16s were accounted for. But no sooner did the Pakistani tweet make such a claim that the Indian subsidiary of the American aviation major counter-tweeted, saying “Lockheed Martin had made no such claims.” Pakistan’s predicament has been made worse by its reported use of F-16. It is in no position to confirm that the Pakistani pilot shot by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was so severely assaulted by a lynch mob when he parachuted on his side of the border that he later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital. The Pakistani Air Force pilot was identified as Wing Commander Shahzaz Ud Din. Sadly for him, his country is in no position to confirm that his aircraft had been shot down, nor that he passed away after a mob lynched him, mistaking him to be an Indian pilot.