I agree with your altered stance. But here is my tirade on PAF's acquisition prcess.
Generally, PAF's problem is not what it is happy with (because that's mostly unavailable) but what it has to be happy with (make do with). As much as the problem is from suppliers' end it is also of the making of the Pakistani military. Internal austerity and budgetary reallocation within the armed forces could ensure a steady acquistion of qualitative assets from the U.S. or any of the European suppliers, with the exception of France. The assets acquired would of course come in small numbers and gradually build up. But clearly that will not happen. So, the logical conclusion always leads us to a single source: China. In this regard we have counted almost all the eggs & none have hatched. FC-20, J-11, J-15, J-16, JH-7, etc ... you name it, we have rumored it, and none of it has happened. I was quite young when Musharraf visited China, toured CAC & decided to buy around 36 FC-20s. I am old now & I see no FC-20s. Lacking funds, we must be cautious about factoring FC-31 into the equation as well. That is unless, we sell a part of country's resources &/or economy to the Chinese in exchange for few FC-31 units. This would not settle well with us, the ordinary population, though.
What bothers me the most is that the PAF has had an opportunity to draw plans for future acquisitions, including contingencies, since the early 2000s when the IAF presented a request for 200+ fighter aircraft (initially Mirage 2000-5). But we went for handful of F-16s. Once the plan for inducting good number of F-16s fell in the ditch the PAF essentially sat tight to watch the show. It still had time when the MMRCA competition began ... but, sitting tight. Then, India narrowed down the MMRCA ... sitting tight. Rafale selected ... sitting tight. Rafale inducted ... sitting tight. This is essentially the mentality that has plagued Pakistan since the beginning, especially when it comes to acquisitions for PAF & PN. To summarise for these two branches: get something mufta, sasta, chalta (second-hand) or on karza, otherwise ... sit tight.
The only people to break the patterns of dismissiveness and creepy acquisitions for the PAF were ZA Bhutto & Zia Ul Haq. Bhutto inherited broken armed forces unable to squeak thus managed to priotisie air force modernization over others without fuss. Zia inherited Bhutto's air force modernization plan and went along with it because the aircraft in question were Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft (DPSA) = extended artilleries in the air. But luck being on his side, the F-16s became available. So ... unless we have a civilian leader who is willing to step up on the acquisitions for the PAF & PN and a military leader who is able to see that PAF & PN modernization is necessary for the success of overall military operations & war planning we might not see an acquisition worthy of national confidence.
Then there is the JF-17 school of thought. Sure it is a very good induction, formidable asset in its own right. But lets face it, it was designed to be a second-tier fighter & that is what it continues to be. Block-III may change - perhaps even become a game changer - that but the vacuum for a 5th gen. aircraft persists. Azm is one of the eggs that has not hatched & is not going to anywhere in the near future. So lets not count that.
Given the opportunity, PAF would again jump onto F-16s above everything else. If that happens, we can't say what the make/version/model is going to be but it is likely to be a mix of new & used aircraft, with used out numbering new by a big margin. Would they suffice for deep penetration strikes? I cannot say, but the likely answer is NO. So, the only other makeup for the problem is JF-17s laced with A2G ammunition and supported by an aerial refueling aircraft for the purpose.
I hope I am proven wrong for much of my tirade above.
