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Pakistan says arrival of two F-16 planes part of major deal

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, Dec 15, IRNA
Pakistan-American Deal
The Pakistani information minister said that the United States has delivered two F-16 jet planes as a "goodwill gesture" and that they were "probably free."
The minister described the delivery as part of a deal which has been postponed by President General Pervez Musharraf due to the October 8 devastating earthquake.

"The deal was delayed and not postponed. The planes have been given to Pakistan as a "goodwill gesture and probably free," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the BBC Urdu service in an interview on Wednesday.

He said the delay could be for two to four months.

We will succeed in dealing with the earthquake crisis but we cannot ignore the situation around as well as national security and defence requirements, Rashid said.

We were supposed to get the planes and we will receive them as it is a matter of defence, he said.

He was of the opinion that Pakistan was in a position to get the planes after 15 years at the same price.

He said that no formal agreement to buy 70 planes has yet been signed.

Whenever it is signed, the delivery could take five to six years, he added.

According to Sheikh Rashid, Pakistan will get 20 old versions of the jets and the rest would be of the latest model.

Renovation of the F-16s already with Pakistan will also be conducted under the same agreement, he said.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said on Tuesday that two F-16s fighter jets from the United States had arrived in Pakistan.

President Pervez Musharraf said on November 4 that Pakistan would postpone the purchase of the jets from the US to focus on quake relief and rehabilitation work.

The F-16s are of the same category as those already operating in the Pakistan Air Force, the PAF statement said.

Pakistan had requested to purchase the F-16s back in the mid-1980s yet, but the United States barred the sale of the planes in 1990 after suspicions mounted that Pakistan was clandestinely producing a nuclear weapon.

Pakistan's testing of its nuclear weapon in May 1998 changed the complexion of the legislation that banned the United States from sending military aid to Pakistan unless the US president certified that Pakistan had no nuclear weapons.

The go-ahead by the Bush administration in March to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan was seen as a reward to the country for its cooperation in the fight against terror.

The Bush administration had said earlier that it was Pakistan's prerogative to move forward with the USD 3 billion fighter jet purchase.

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