WASHINGTON: The Obama administration's decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan has faced severe opposition in Washington. At least two US senators have announced that they intend to try and stop the sale despite the fact that the administration has vetted the deal with backdoor approvals.
Senator Rand Paul along with colleague Bob Corker, the senate foreign relations committee chairman, opposed the sale saying he has introduced a resolution of disapproval seeking to halt all arms sales to Pakistan. If passed, the measure would also stop the F-16 sale, which needs to be approved by the Senate before March 12. They seem to be backed by veteran senator John McCain, who said, “I would rather have seen it kicked over into the next administration,” adding that he was “conflicted” on the timing of the announcement. “This is really a tough one for me and for a lot of people. I think the timing was really bad on this issue,” he told the Defence Writers Group, asking for a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where the administration will have to explain and defend the deal to a country many lawmakers believe uses terrorism as a policy tool.
California Congressman Ami Bera said, “Pakistan must prove it is taking substantive steps to go after all terrorist groups in the country before we move forward with the sale of F-16s. So far, Pakistan has not shown willingness to go after groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is why I cannot support a sale at this time.” He also added that if the sale was proceeded, US taxpayers should not subsidise the cost of the F-16s. “If Pakistan wants to buy the planes they should pay for them.” Talking about the administrations' timing to press for the supply of the lethal fighter jet, a congressional insider said it was possibly a legacy issue, leftover from the Bush administration when Washington contracted to sell 36 F-16s to Pakistan. Under the original contract, Lockheed Martin was to manufacture 12 F-16C plus 6 F-16D for Pakistan, as part of the larger deal. However, no timeline was given for the induction of the full complement of jets.
“No one likes to deal with Pakistan. This is just to kick the relationship over the next few months,” the source said. “This is really a tough one for me and for a lot of people. I think the timing was really bad on this issue,” McCain said. “It is not that far away. You know that F-16 issue has been hanging out there for four-five years. I think we could have waited a little longer.” Most of the Congress thinks that long-term strategic ties with India are far more important than with troubled Pakistan. “I think that the future of Asia, if we want to have the kind of influence that we always had and deterrence to the Chinese behaviour is a very close relationship between the US and India. Which by the the F-16 issue complicates that,” McCain said.
On this side, India has decided to oppose the latest sale to Pakistan, although eight F-16s does not materially alter the balance of power. Indian sources conjecture that US may eventually get the deal through given its exigencies in Afghanistan, “but that's no reason for us to make it easy. This is a matter of our security and the overall perception of our ties with US.”
