Since ‘war on terror,’ Pakistan imported more arms from US than previous 50 yrs

In fact, last year alone, the value of imports was $3.49 billion — the value of total imports from 1950 to 2001 was $3.63 billion.

“The rise of Pakistan to its new status as a major arms purchaser from the United States is particularly noteworthy given the difficulties the United States has had with Pakistan since the 1970s over its successful effort to produce nuclear weapons,” the report notes.

Analysts say that the report gives voice to a growing concern in Washington over increasing arms exports to the troubled country.

More importantly, the report — it was prepared days after Emergency was declared in Pakistan and is directed at giving US lawmakers vital background on key issues — emphasises that US law gives the President the power to terminate arms sales to the country at any point.

“The report notes that US law gives the President the power to terminate arms sales at any point, a particularly timely observation in light of growing Congressional discontent with arms sales and military aid for Pakistan,” Matt Schroeder, who heads the Arms Sales Monitoring Project of the Federation of American Scientist (FAS), told The Sunday Express in an email interview.

The report notes that while the main reason for the huge leap is the $1.4-billion deal to purchase 36 F-16 fighters, other major deals include 115 Self-Propelled 155-mm Howitzers, a possible cause for worry to India as it is already decades behind in its artillery modernisation plan.

Other big-ticket agreements include six C-130 military transport aircraft, surveillance radars, military radios, and interestingly over 2000 TOW anti-tank missiles, 100 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, three Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning systems and an equal number of maritime patrol aircraft.

“The Department of Defence has characterised F-16 fighters, P-3C patrol aircraft, and anti-armor missiles as having significant anti-terrorism applications, claims that elicit skepticism from some analysts,” says another recent CRS report on US-Pakistan relations.

While earlier this week, Switzerland became the first country to post restrictions on Pakistan due to the Emergency (it blocked the $121-million Skyguard air defence system contract), a move is also on in the US to “condition” military sales to Islamabad.

“Comments by Senator Joe Biden, the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee , suggest that he might move to postpone or cancel the F-16 sale if democracy is not restored in Pakistan, but it is too soon to tell if events will progress to that point,” says Schroeder.

Biden issued a hard-hitting paper for a “new approach” on Pakistan last week in wake of the Emergency in which he emphasized that a conditioning security aid would help “push the Pakistani military to finally crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban.”