by Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan is disappointed at a recent U.S. Congress decision to block the country's purchase of F-16 fighter aircraft for its fight against the insurgents in the difficult mountainous terrain, political observers suggested Tuesday.
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had provisionally approved to the sale of eight F-16s in February, however, a sub-committee on Asia and Pacific of the U.S. Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs blocked the subsidized deal earlier this month.
The administration was to pay 430 million U.S. dollars in subsidies through the U.S. foreign military's financing budget of the jets valued at nearly 700 million dollars. Pakistan's share was only 270 million dollars.
Pakistan wanted to bolster its fleet of F-16s and to further boost its air power against the militants in the tribal regions.
Aerial bombing had proved to be the most successful means of targeting the hideouts of the armed groups in the rugged mountains, bordering Afghanistan.
Sources close to the matter suggested recently however, that some U.S. congressmen decided to recycle old arguments that Pakistan has not done enough against the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani Network.
The sub-committee's chairman Matt Salmon told the hearing that there are concerns the F-16s could be used against India as tensions between Pakistan and India persist.
Read the full story at Xinhua