Not entirely no, else PAF would have already gone with that route. Upgrading displays and some avionics akin to what PAC Kamra has done with the Mushshak is not enough to turn an intermediate jet trainer into a lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT).
There are some things that set the two categories apart and it comes down to the operator on which ones they would emphasize more than others. For eg. PAF's ex-chief has been on record stating that they were looking for an appropriate LIFT trainer but one without an AB engine (to keep costs down). But to understand why PAF or any other professional air force REQUIRES a LIFT platform is due to the complexity of 4+ generation aircraft.
LIFT aircraft in the market include KAI T-50, Alenia Aermacchi M-346/Yak-130/Hongdu L-15 (same family of trainers), Boeing/Saab T-7A, and to some extent the Hawk Mk128.
Some of the characteristics of LIFT aircraft include:
- Radar: High end PD or AESA radar (Aircraft missing these compensate by using ACMI pods as well as radar emulation pods or embedded systems that simulates different radar emissions and other characteristics of friendly or enemy aircraft for training)
- Advanced Modular Avionics: What this means is not just having some fancy LCDs and calling it a day. The avionics in all LIFT aircraft are designed around open architecture that allows them to simulate the avionics of advanced jet, most importantly information and battle management systems.
- FBW & HOTAS: All LIFT trainers are FBW in order to be able to effectively mimic the flight performance of various aircraft an air force operates. This ties in with the modular avionics as well.
- Maneuverabilty: This also ties in with FBW systems as all LIFT aircraft have high G tolerances, and need to be able to achieve high angles of attack
The most important of all these factors is the advanced modular avionics structure. All these aircraft come with some sort of an embedded training system that allows the aircraft to emulate different radars, weapons, targeting pods, EW systems and finally having data link capabilities.
K-8 has none of these characteristics and even if PAF was able to source a fully digital cockpit in an attempt to upgrade some of the avionics, it still fails to meet every other critical feature that makes a LIFT set apart from an intermediate or advanced jet trainer.
Secondly, Pakistan does not have in-house capability to develop any of these systems in house and given that we are just starting to go down the road with the Air University etc, I don't foresee acquiring the capacity to develop a worthy system of the complexity required for another 20+ years. Hence it will need to outsource these jets. In this regard, we can not even go back to Hongdu to bring K-8 up to this standard as it will most likely be both technically and financially unfeasible, not to mention that have already gone the route of developing the L-15 with the help of the Russians instead of updating J/K-8. You can also see a similar situation with the US T-X program where both Textron and Northrop Grumman/BAE withdrew from the competition as their trainers could not meet the requirements and they would have needed a completely new clean sheet design.
So basically, K-8 in any form can not substitute for a LIFT.