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Quake: Pakistan to delay F-16s' purchase

B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to delay purchase of F-16s from the U.S. to stay focused on rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the quake-hit Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), said President Pervez Musharraf at Muzaffarabad on Friday. Since the October 8 earthquake, a section of the media and civil society has been pressing the military not to go ahead with the purchase.

Earlier this week, Gen. Musharraf had ruled out any cuts in defence spending on the plea that while quake relief was a priority, the Government could ill afford to jeopardise national security. "We are going to postpone that... we want to bring maximum relief and reconstruction efforts," Gen. Musharraf said on Friday.

The Bush Administration approved the sale in March after years of sanctions over Islamabad's nuclear programme. Pakistan already has about 30 F-16s, delivered before the U.S. embargo was imposed in 1990, but intended to augment the fleet by another 25 at $25 million each.

According to the official figures more than 73,000 persons died in the earthquake and almost the same number were severely injured. An estimated 3.3 million persons were rendered homeless and one million do not have adequate food.

Pakistan has said the cost of rebuilding the devastated areas will be more than $5 billions.

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