Donatello
RETIRED TTA
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This statement is in correct. Pakistan never ordered 77 F-16. The order was for 36 Block 52’s. This was to be paid for from PAF funds. Musharraf visited China and on return he reduced the order to 18 aircrafts and the funds thus released were supposed to be spent on purchasing Chinese J-20 which was considered a more advanced plane than F-16 Block 52. There is thread in this forum where this matter has been discussed.
People may have forgotten that Musharraf book “In the line of fire” published in 2006 was No.3 on the best seller list within the first week. More than 70,000 hard copies were sold within a couple of months and it is still among one of the bestselling history books. Understand that more copies of this book were sold in India than in Pakistan and he was paid $1-million and some percentage from the sales.
What I’m saying is that no one has ever accused of Musharraf stealing PAF funds to finance his farm house. You can arguably accuse him of breaking Pakistan’s constitution & usurping power, but certainly not pocketing PAF funds. Please be clear that I am not a diehard fan of Musharraf but governance during his era was far better than during Zardari and Nawaz Sharif regimes.
PAF funds were not for earthquake relief. I have heard rumours that many countries didnot fully pay what was pledged for the earthquake.I know many from Mirpur and all say that Mirpur is now almost as it was before the earthquake. Cant' say the same about other places as I have no info.
Just a clarification, the talks were done for 72 BLK52s around 2004-5, and it was agreed (back channel, as usually it is done) that congress would pass the notification. However, PAF requested that the notification be sent for only 36 F-16s, which were then approved and out of those approved, PAF finally purchased 18. The reason given, at least to the public, was that in hard times of the Earthquake, spending billions on F-16s alone didn't make any sense.