Pakistan will postpone the purchase of F-16 fighter jets from the US in order to provide more relief to victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake, President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday.
"I am going to postpone that," Musharraf told reporters when asked about the purchase of the aircraft while visiting a quake-hit region of northern Pakistan.
"We want to bring maximum relief and reconstruction effort," he said, while stressing that maintaining national security was also important.
The US said last year it was willing to sell Pakistan F-16 fighters and Islamabad was expected to buy about 80 of the fighters made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
An F-16 can cost up to about US$40 million, depending on the model and the configuration.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there were continuing discussions with the Pakistani government.
"But in terms of whether or not the sale is going to move forward, I'd let them talk about it," he told reporters in Washington.
Pakistan is seeking billions of dollars in relief and reconstruction aid after the earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people in its northern mountains.
The 7.6-magnitude earthquake razed almost all major cities and towns in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region that is also claimed by India, and severely affected northern parts of the country.
The earthquake, according to the UN, has affected more than 3.3 million people. Pakistan is already short of cash, as the reconstruction and rehabilitation process remains a gargantuan task. The UN has received only 25 percent of the money it has said is needed for reconstruction efforts.
Dwindling financial resources needed for earthquake reconstruction have pushed Pakistani policy makers to look for ways to lessen the pressure on the country's budget, but analysts added that the move to postpone buying the jet fighters has political considerations as well.
But Musharraf said that while the focus was on recovering from the earthquake, the planes remained an important priority.
"We should never do something that jeopardizes one or the other," he said. "So, both have their importance."
Musharraf had earlier this week said that he would not be cutting military spending. Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmir in the past 58 years.
Pakistan is currently considering two options, either buying fewer than the originally planned 75 planes or importing a previous version of the aircraft from a European country, Dawn, the country's most prestigious English daily, reported on Friday.
Pakistan attaches huge importance to the F-16s, as they constitute an essential element of its air force's capabilities. Pakistan had requested a purchase of F-16s back in the mid-1980s but the US barred the sale of the fighters to Pakistan in 1990 after suspicions mounted that Pakistan was secretly producing a nuclear weapon. Pakistan tested its nuclear weapon in May 1998.
The go-ahead by Bush administration in March of this year to sell F-16s to Pakistan was seen as a reward for Musharraf's cooperation in the war against terror.
Musharraf is an ally of the US in the war against terror and has won accolades from Washington over his support of the US. The news earlier this year that the Bush administration had lifted the restriction of the sale of the fighter jets met with euphoria in Pakistan.
While reconstruction and rehabilitation is a major concern for the government of Musharraf, the announcement on Friday of postponing the purchase was also aimed at placating possible criticism within the country, analysts said.
"This is probably to get political mileage," Ayesha Siddiqua Aga, a security analyst who is based in Islamabad, said, adding that there already criticism over a recent US$1 billion deal to buy Swedish Erie Eye SAAB airborne.
"If you buy major weapon programs, you can not attract foreign aid for relief and reconstruction," Aga said.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defense and military analyst based in Lahore, agreed.
"I think this is a middle road that President Musharraf has adopted. He can keep the military happy because of no defense cut while deflect criticism," Rizvi said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS