Guys,guys, guys, this is what the PAF Air chief said in an interview to AFM last year.
"I began looking at a LIFT, but the difficulty is many like the KAI T-50 and Hongdu L-15, with their afterburners, are like fighters, and will cost around the same as an F-16. We cannot afford that now. We're concentrating on modifying the training so people can safely convert from the F-7P and Mirages to the two new platforms.
Anyway, when we get our dual-seat JF-17s, several of these issues will be resolved!"
So basically i think PAF has resolved the issue of Lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT) by making improvements on the K-8P, with the additional weapon package, it gives PAF all the requirements of a LIFT without the afterburners. An adequate solution until the dual-seat JF-17 becomes available in numbers.