Pakistan Rejects US Terms For F-16 Fighter Sale

Pakistan has rejected the conditions US has attached over the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets.

Speaking to the media after a meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry Saturday said, “No conditiona should be attached to the sale of F-16s as Pakistan plans to use the fighters to fight terrorists and nobody else,” Dawn reported Monday.

“Diplomatic efforts are underway to convince the US Congress to subsidize the sale,” Chaudhry said.

The US last Tuesday told Pakistan to fund itself for the purchase of Lockheed Martin F-16s after US Congressional members objected to using Foreign Military Financing allocation to pay for the fighters.

According to the earlier $699 million deal, Pakistan would have to pay about one third of the actual price with a funding about $270m from its national funds. The US was supposed to provide the rest from its Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund.

Pakistan will have to part with national funds for the purchase of eight F-16s which would cost more than twice the amount it had agreed on earlier. In such a case, each F-16 fighter will cost an approximate $87 million.

The US gives Pakistan $265 million as part of foreign military assistance, in previous years it was $300 million. The amount received is split between the three branches of the armed forces. Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) share is $80 million, which they had allocated for the last three years to buy the jets, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's foreign policy chief was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"So if any arrangements can be made, we will buy them, otherwise obviously we will have to look for planes from somewhere else," Aziz added.