From the Iron Curtain to the Soft Democracy, every developed country had to start from somewhere and i believe PAF made the right choice by going with a project of their own which has given them something to play with. I discussed the same point before and i say it again. American F-22, 18, 16, 15, 14, 111 etc, all were gradually developed over a span of 70+ years after the WW2. German scientists were leaps and bounds ahead during the WW2 over their British, French, Swedish, Swiss and US counterparts in terms of technological know how and other advanced scientific expertise.
No wonder, after the demise of Hitler and Nazis, they were taken as chunks after chunks, to USSR, US, Brits and European nations. History tells us how humble were the beginnings of today's advanced military technology, particularly, the military aviation. Gripen has roots in Draken, Raptor's ancestor is F-86, Eurofighter opened eyes after EE lightening, Gnat were long gone. The point is, where PAF is standing today with its JFT blk 1, is where the Americans were with their Blk 40/42 F-16s back in 90s, our's has an advantage in EW and avionics particularly cockpit ergonomics and radar over the former. I do not see how we went 10 years back by developing our own fighter that can be, and is being developed in to a way more advanced fighter the any Gripen versions and other rivals, but that will happen in due time and when the need is felt. We today, are not bogged down like we were 20 years ago when PAF had to upgrade Mirages when the world was retiring them, only to gain a little night attack capability. PAF has to pick what was thrown by manufacturers (export versions) what suited its immediate requirements. Americans didnt give us LANTIRN pods, as a replacement, we had to buy Atlis II day only targeting/ navigation pods to complement our fleet. We never had a toy that we could develop, modify, improve all on our own. The day is not too far when we will see advanced versions, dedicated EW or attack versions (already developed in china) and radical RCS reduction technology applied on some version under use by PAF. Now, which of the western aircraft we could get with such flexibility? None.