The project was never real to begin with. How could something fail if it never got started, someone was blowing smoke up people's *** for propaganda and publicity. Building a 5th Gen fighter is difficult enough for Middle powers like South Korea, Turkey, Sweden, who actually have experience with high tech aerospace development and production. Its a difficult project even for India which has the money resources for the project even if it doesn't have as extensive of an experience as other states. Even the Israelis didn't attempt to create their own 5th Gen fighter, and they have a higher GDP than Pakistan and they spend a higher percentage of their GDP on Defense than Pakistan(5.66% vs 3.74%) and a far more developed high tech aerospace and defense industry. Or even the Iranians which despite the sanctions, and outside of Nukes, I would argue have a far more robust defense industry and military development capacity than Pakistan.
This project if it was ever genuine to start with(I don't think it was ever real, the Military Brass I expect are more competent than the gullible public and realize the extent of the task at hand) was set up for failure.
People it seems never learned from the IAI Lavi failure that the Israelis had, or even the Tejas project failures that the Indians had. don't try to create a full product all on your own, in the very first go. The way to go about this is to do things piecewise.
If Pakistan's goal is to develop its aerospace sector, the proper way to do this is to do it piecewise. Firstly find a partner country to codevelop with, which will give you some domestic production, as well as transfer of tech. Secondly don't try to develop the the full airframe and engine etc., instead do what the Israelis did, design subsystems and addons for the product, so for example, start with the very basic things, build air to ground missiles and air to air munitions for your platforms, in terms of development of aircraft this is one of the easier things to develop. so Cruise missiles, glide bombs, guidance kits(like spice). Next comes the avoinics and sensors, design your own PODs like Litening and Aselpod. Then move on to other subsystems, like IRST etc etc, Finally design your own Radars and other sensors. Also develop skills and technical knowledge for overhauling and maintenance of aircraft as part of the domestic production license agreement via tech transfers. This way you will become self sufficient in carrying out support for your aircraft without needing as much input from the country you bought the aircraft from, you will not need to buy munitions and send the aircraft back for modernization(outside of major things like upgrading the engine).
Also be pragmatic and understand your own weaknesses and needs, and concentrate efforts in building you a cohesive development plan that also has a corresponding military doctrine for warfare, would will not succeed in fighting a war for example in the same way that India fights a war, you have neither the money, technical base, nor the manpower(although Pakistan does have formidable manpower, you will not be able to field the same amount of platforms as your neighbor, so don't create a military doctrine that tries to mimic or mirror equivalents, for example you won't be able to acquire as many planes as India, you will need a different approach). Iran for example knows it cannot field a conventional air force that its neighbors can field, b/c of difficultly in buying what it needs from sanctions, as well as not having the budget to match its adversaries, so it doesn't try to build an airforce in the same way as its adversaries, instead it concentrates its efforts on drone warfare, from loitering munitions to bigger platforms, it concentrates its defense on aeriel denial via air defense systems, and it bases its deterrence on ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Also understand your own strengths, what are things Pakistan has access to that India my not have? for example if India wanted to field 5th gen fighters tomorrow, could it do that? no, b/c its unlikely that the US as it currently stands would be willing to allow the export of F-35s to India, and the French and other Europeans are still developing their so they couldn't sell them even if they wanted to. The Russians could in theory do so, but Russia's mass production capability and development of the Su-57 is a bit suspect, considering the engines are still an issue, and its just not as stealthy as other designs, nor does it have sensor fusion and other capabilities as other fighters. Its one of the reasons as to why the Indians abandoned the FGFA project. China on the other hand has developed probably the most formidable platform outside of the US, and China won't sell to India for obvious reasons, but China may be willing to sell to Pakistan, as that has strategic benefits to it. So if I was a Pakistani policy maker, I would consider buying a squadron of Shenyang FC-31, its too expensive for Pakistan to buy a mass order of them to warrant domestic license production from China, but like the Israelis secured an agreement for modification with the "Adir" f-35, Pakistan could secure something similar, and develop subsystems for the aircraft like the Israelis do. This way, despite not having a numerical advantage that India does, Pakistan would have a qualitative advantage against India, for quite some time, as its unlikely the Indian 5th generation plane would be ready anytime soon, and if the Tejas project is any indication, it may be a long time, and by that time comes, China would likely have moved on to next generation platforms, which can possibly be acquired. Use the FC-31 along with the Jf-17 as part of a "High Low mix", and also consider acquiring AEWAC aircraft based on the Y-20 as well.
