I understand what you are trying to say. Looking at the our current situation we cannot afford it.
The thing is that we are most likely going to consider the J-35 at the end of this decade. That is a long time. We can easily get our economy back on track by that time.
"We had around 100 F-86s and now we have around 80 F-16s".
With all due respect sir the F-16 example is a poor one. We have 50+ F-16 on order which were never delivered. PAF had originally planned on having 150 F-16 if not for the arms embargo. We would be amongst the largest foreign F-16 operators along side Egypt, Turkey and Israel.
"If we were to acquire J-35s it would be foolish to acquire more than 50".
Only 50 5th generation for a air force the size of PAF? In any case the minimum number should be 100. 150 is the number for PAF needed to neutralize Indian air superiority.
The J-35 is expected to have a unit price of around 80 million USD. So 80x150= 12 billion USD. Spread that over a 10 year plan. If made a priority by the Pakistan armed forces it should not be a problem.
@Zarvan What do you think. How many units of the J-35 should the PAF induct?