Pakistan’s defence minister Pervez Khattak said he was not aware whether such provision exists in the aircraft purchase deal between the United States and Pakistan, amid reports of Islamabad violating the US-Pak warplane purchase deal.
India insisted that the aerial battle between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had involved a Pak’s F-16 fighter jet, which is considered to be a violation of the US-Pak warplane purchase deal.
According to Sputnik news reports, the opposition leaders along with former US Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani has questioned the motive of buying US-built F-16 fighter jet if such a restriction exists.
Senators sought clarification from its government whether any such deal exists with Washington that would bar Islamabad from using F-16 jet fighting with other nations, and in response to Senators, the minister said, “I will inform the House soon if such a deal exists.”
Earlier, Senator general Abdul Qayyum of Pakistan’s Muslim League-Nawaz has said that there was no such restriction on the purposes of use of US F-16 fighter jet against India. He remarked, “We had given hard cash to purchase these aircraft.”
The US has on Tuesday said it has been “closely following” the reports alleging that Pakistan used US-manufactured F-16 fighter jet during an aerial clash with Indian MiG-21 fighter jet across Line of Control (LOC).
When asked to comment over whether Islamabad has been misusing American fighter jets, US state department spokesperson Robert Palladino asserted: “I can’t confirm anything, but as a matter of policy, we don’t publicly comment on the contents of bilateral agreements that we have in this regard involving U.S. defence technologies nor the communications that we have with other countries about that. So we’re taking a look and we’re going to continue to take a look, and I’m going to leave it at that.”