PAF wouldn’t have gone for F-16 if there was anything technologically superior available that they could afford….

Now that you take emotions out of it you make alot of sense. What you say maybe partially ( or wholly true -since we donot know the j-10 capability for sure) true. Pakistan can afford j10s and it is superior to the f-16s ( or it appears to be to the pakistanis who are impressed ) hence Pakistan cutting the initial desired order of around 75 new f-16s to this one of only 18 new f-16s.

In addition to that i would add getting the f-16s would enable Musharaff to show something concrete for being in the American camp in the so called war on terror.

I’ve got some bad news to burst your conspiracy bubble. F-16A was only certified to carry a limited set of weapons; AIM-9, Mark 80 series iron bombs, a couple different cluster bombs and the truly awful Maverick A. The F-16A’s technology breakthrough was having the fire control computer display CCIP on the HUD. This is the technology USAFE was using against the Warsaw Pact and is the same technology PAF got. PGMs were not seriously explored until the mid-1980s, and were not a reality until the LANTIRN pod was fielded in the 1990s…long after the PAF F-16s were built.

Unfortunately for you, American experts have testified numerous times that Pak f-16s were specifically designed/engineered as not to carry certain munitions. The book “critical mass” written by american authors too mentions this and also the fact that pakistani engineers managed to fix the design enabling their f-16s to carry nukes. That book also gives the narrative just how close Pak-india came to war in 1990/91 and the fact that CIA detected nuke loaded Pak f-16s on the runway–forcing imediate intervention from the americans to defuse the crisis.

Pakistan is the US’s new best friend (until the terrorism problem stops anyway) so why wouldn’t they say good things about them?

I am not reffering to any praise since 911 but before that date. Unlike the indians, pakistanis donot claim to be born genious in technologies mastered and produced by the west. Pakistan has always been close to the USA and its pilots were trained by the Americans and other western countries, so they claim to be the best by learning from the best and the best also help them setup the top notch training instituitions and protocols.

PS. Pakistan is not new friend of the usa but has been close to USA since it came into being in 1947. India was chums with USSR.

oh, is it wrong to ask for a source to confirm this report?

i meant which bit you want source for???

article extract is from Guardian london report of the same title “North Korea shuns Chinese diplomacy”.