Even though the Obama administration had promised Pakistan that it would subsidise nearly two-thirds of the cost of the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets, in the US the purse strings are controlled by the Congress – where the Republicans have a majority. They have now decided to block this subsidy, and if Pakistan wants to purchase the F-16s it will have to pay the full cost price of $700 million rather than $270 million. We are unlikely to do this given our current budget constraints and the budget deficit reduction measures imposed on us by the IMF. When the Republicans first mooted blocking the deal, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told parliament that the fault lay in the anti-Pakistan efforts of the Indian lobby and controversial former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani. But blaming the usual bogeymen is too simplistic. The US government right now is uniquely dysfunctional. The Republicans have tried so hard to stymie all Obama initiatives that they are willing to blow up the country’s foreign policy. Dozens of ambassadors, State Department officials and counterterrorism officials have not been confirmed by the Senate just because the Republicans automatically oppose everything as soon as Obama proposes it.
Until the make-up of the US Congress changes, the F-16 deal will have to be put on ice. The Republican Party’s absolute commitment to destroying Obama was best seen when it tried to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal, writing letters to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warning him not to trust the US president and giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a platform in Congress to rail against Obama. A party so irresponsible is not going to care about deals Obama has made with Pakistan and how they might affect our relationship with the US. The Obama administration, too, is slowly pivoting away from Pakistan as their military engagement in Afghanistan ends. Already, there has been a reduction in non-military aid and further cuts may be forthcoming. In the long-term we do not need to worry too much about which party is in power in the US, since they tend not to differ too wildly in foreign policy. The uncertainty right now will only last until there is more clarity in the zoo that has become the US presidential campaign. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/117067-The-F-16-deal
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