WASHINGTON, April 12: Acquisition of spare parts needed for Pakistan’s F-16 jets has more or less been completed, and procedures for releasing other US military spares are also in various stages of being processed.
It has become possible for Pakistan to get the spare parts following the lifting of sanctions that had banned military sales to Pakistan. The sanctions were lifted after the Sept 11 attacks when Pakistan joined the US-led coalition for the military campaign in Afghanistan, although pressure for ending the restrictions was building up before the attacks.
A Pakistan Embassy spokesman said while F-16 spare parts were acquired under the foreign military sales programme, re-licensing was needed in the case of other spares, and there was also a congressional component involved. Since sanctions were imposed and lifted by Congress, it continued to have an oversight role where military sales were concerned.
The spare parts issue was raised with General Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, during a briefing for foreign correspondents on Thursday afternoon. The general did not get into details, but said the US relationship with Pakistan, specially on the military-to-military side, continued to “improve on a daily basis.”
He said he could not exactly say how much security assistance had been provided since last September, but the momentum needed to “mature the relationship” with Pakistan was improving every day.
Gen Franks said: “Are we where we want to be in terms of the maturity and the growth of that relationship today? Of course, we aren’t. I can tell you that my boss, the secretary of defence, is very much engaged in working, along with other elements of our own country, to grow and mature the relationship that we have with Pakistan.”
Pakistan now has a liaison presence, along with other coalition countries, at the Tampa, Florida, headquarters of the Central Command, which is in charge of the military operation in Afghanistan, and Gen Franks had said last week that this had improved US-Pakistan coordination.
The Central Command chief was also asked about the condition of Abu Zubaydah, the Al Qaeda man arrested from Faisalabad earlier this month. Gen Franks said: “I really can’t give you much of an update on Abu Zubaydah. He is under our control.
He is under medical treatment. He is at no risk, as I understand it, of loss of life. And so, that is the status as I’m aware of it. And I think it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about the discussions that we are having with Abu Zubaydah. Suffice it to say that he’s under our control and that his health is being looked after.”
INDIAN TEAM: Meanwhile, an Indian defence delegation, led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff head Lt-Gen B.C. Joshi, is in Washington for talks at the Pentagon. The delegation is said to be here to study America’s centralized command structure.
India has also been shopping around for military spares and equipment, and is reported to be having some problems with Congress on equipment that is considered to be classified as dual-use technology.
