Islamabad: Pakistan needs modern F-16 fighter jets for its ongoing war against terrorism, but has rejected the conditions that United States has attached with their sale, said Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.
The Dawn reports that the foreign secretary said no conditions should be attached to the sale of F-16s because Pakistan plans to use the jets only for the purpose of fighting terrorists.
The US State Department said Pakistan will have to pay from its own funds if it wants to buy F-16 fighter jets, after the US Congress last month withdrew funds for the deal to force Pakistan to act against the Haqqani network.
Chaudhry said that diplomatic efforts were underway to convince the Congress to subsidise the sale of the fighter jets.
Pakistan had earlier reached an understanding with the US for buying eight F-16 planes. Under the deal, Pakistan was required to pay about $270m from its national funds.
The US was supposed to provide the rest from its Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund.
Pakistan has conveyed to the US that it does not have the money to buy F-16 jets from its resources and has cautioned that if the stalemate over funding is not resolved it may consider buying some other fighter aircraft to meet its needs.
