Spurned by US, Pakistan grabs Jordan offer on F-16

Spurned by the US, Pakistan has turned to Jordan to buy 16 used F-16 jets to augment its military arsenal. The move a day after tensions ratcheted up between India and Afghanistan, following return of fire and killing of soldiers, including a Pakistani major.

Earlier, the US Congress blocked purchase of eight F-16 fighters to Pakistan, objecting the use of government funds to pay for them. The US Congress gesture was applauded by prime minister Modi while addressing the joint session at Capitol Hill. The Obama administration had approved the sale of jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N, as well as radar and other equipment, in a deal valued at $699 million.

"The case for the purchase of F-16s from the US is closed, we are now going for a third-party transfer of F-16s and have an offer from Jordan," Pakistan defence secretary retired Lt Gen Alam Khattak told a joint sitting of the senate committees on defence and foreign affairs. The committee had been asked by senate chairman Raza Rabbani to review the current state of Pak-US ties and suggest a way forward.

Chairman of the defence committee Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who co-chaired the meeting with chairperson of the foreign affairs committee Nuzhat Sadiq, said a strategic shift in US policy towards the region was visible. He believed that US actions, like the killing of Mullah Mansour, depicted confusion in its policy on Afghanistan.

Syed Tariq Fatemi, special assistant on foreign affairs to Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, also complained that there was "lack of sufficient appreciation for Pakistan's wholehearted efforts it was undertaking jointly with the US administration in countering the threat posed by terrorism".

The F-16s were supposed to be supplied by the US government's Foreign Military Financing Programme. Pakistani officials contend that the reasons for which US Congress withheld the financing were non-negotiable.

Khattak conceded that the used Block-30 F-16s being offered by Jordan were not of the same quality and standard as the Block-52 that were to come from the US. The Jordanian aircraft, which were manufactured in 1988/90 and upgraded in 2001/02, may have to be upgraded again to meet Pakistan Air Force's current demands.

Pakistan immediately needs to replace the Block-15 F-16s, which are due to be retired in the next couple of years. In 2014 also, Pakistan had purchased 13 F-16 fighters from Jordan.

Pakistan defence secretary also told senate that the country was looking at Russian and French markets for the state-of-the-art armaments. Another defence ministry official, rear admiral Mukhtar Khan, however, said the US had so far not objected to the deal with Jordan, but under the current environment getting American approval for the sale, a mandatory requirement, would not be easy to manage.

Adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz told the meeting that the government was right in not accepting US conditions. "If the conditions affect national interest, it is better not to accept them. It was an issue of choices," he contended.

The Haqqani network, he added, was not a simple issue and could have caused a blowback. Moreover, he noted, the matter was linked to the border management, which the Afghan government had been resisting. Aziz further said the US had been conveyed that Pakistan would respond to the increasing imbalance in the region because of the Indo-US defence cooperation by maintaining its strategic deterrence.

Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry, in his testimony, said there could be no compromise on the nuclear programme and blamed the US for causing a setback to Afghan reconciliation efforts by acting in haste and eliminating Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a drone attack.