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Benazir wanted cash, not F-16s
ASIA NEWS INTERNATIONAL
ISLAMABAD, January 18: The controversy over the refund of F-16 money by the United States to Pakistan had another dimension to it - one that could well turn out to be the crucial missing link in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Mirage aircraft scandal involving allegations of kickbacks. The US dimension, as it is being called, has come out following the disclosures by a senior Pakistani diplomat, Zamir Akram, the number two man in the Pakistan Embassy in US.According to The News, Akram, who was the right hand man of Benazir's Ambassador to the US, Maleeha Lodhi, made an official statement corroborating statements made by at least four well-known Pakistani-Americans in the US about the role of the Bhutto government, through her Ambassador, in pressing the American administration for returning the money to Pakistan instead of delivering the F-16s. The deal involved the purchase by Pakistan of 28 "multi-purpose" F-16 jets, at a total of 658 million dollars. But in October 1990, America stopped
the delivery of the jets to Pakistan. The crucial factor delaying the Mirage deal was foreign exchange shortage in Pakistan at the end of 1996, aggravated by the payment of some 120 million dollars to Spain by the defence ministry, apparently in violation of the prime minister's orders. With this depletion in the defence kitty, the government found itself unable to raise the 280 million dollars needed to make the down-payment for the Mirage deal. According to Akram, Islamabad could not explore any other option, especially not of the Mirage aircraft, without closing the F-16 chapter. To ensure this, the Bhutto government coined the phrase "our planes or the money back", the purpose of which was to provide the US administration an easy outlet to get out of the commitment to sell the planes. Akram confirmed that in the original draft of the Hank Brown Amendment, the return of F-16s was included as part of the text. Brown's original draft of the Pressler Agreement, according to Akram, included the planes. Thenthe American administration "told us that from the original text of the Brown Amendment they could release only the F-16 equipment but if you put F-16s in it, there will be too much opposition and we don't think it will pass (in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee)." This was conveyed by the administration to Brown, who in turn conveyed it to Pakistan. "Both Brown and the Embassy contested with the administration that if there was support it would be for the entire package, but they did not agree. Whether it was a deliberate act or not is something for the administration (to explain)," Akram said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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