Islamabad: In a move seen as a major diplomatic and strategic victory for Pakistan, the Congress cleared a proposed foreign military sale valued at $450 million for maintenance and sustainment services of the fighter jet, popularly known as F-16 package, a media report said Wednesday.
This comes days after Biden administration indicated that Pakistan could be bailed out of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
According to the Geo News report, Congress didn't raise any objection to the proposed sale thus clearing the way for the package for Pakistan which was approved last month by President Joe Biden's administration.
As per the rules, clearance was required from the US House of Representatives for the programme to proceed.
The F-16 package made headlines after Indian criticism of the deal, triggering a strong response from Islamabad which urged New Delhi to refrain from commenting on Pakistan-US ties, Geo News reported.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also defended the military sale, saying the package was for the maintenance of Pakistan's existing fleet.
"These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It's sustaining what they have," he said in a joint press conference with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
"Pakistan's programme bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan or from the region. It's in no one's interests that those threats be able to go forward with impunity, and so this capability that Pakistan has had can benefit all of us in dealing with terrorism," Blinken had said.
He added that the US had a "responsibility and an obligation to whomever we provide military equipment to make sure that it's maintained and sustained. That's our obligation".
When asked to elaborate on the terrorism threats and the need for F-16s to counter them, Blinken said:
"There are clear terrorism threats that continue to emanate from Pakistan itself as well as from neighbouring countries. "And whether it is TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) that may be targeting Pakistan, whether it's IS, whether it's Al Qaeda, I think the threats are clear, well-known, and we all have an interest in making sure that we have the means to deal with them. And that's what this is about."
"There are clear terrorism threats that continue to emanate from Pakistan itself as well as from neighbouring countries.
"And whether it is TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) that may be targeting Pakistan, whether it's IS, whether it's Al Qaeda, I think the threats are clear, well-known, and we all have an interest in making sure that we have the means to deal with them. And that's what this is about."
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, has reached Paris to attend a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), media reports said.
The delegation led by Hina Rabbani held a meeting with Jean-Louis Bourlanges, President of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the French National Assembly, ARY News reported.
Pakistan-France bilateral relations, including parliamentary cooperation, situation of floods in Pakistan, as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest, were discussed during the meeting.
The minister also extended an invitation to French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Pakistan to further strengthen parliamentary contacts and cooperation between the two countries.
Earlier, Hina Rabbani held a roundtable with a group of French intellectuals, members of think-tanks and scholars. She shared Pakistan's perspective on important national, regional and global matters while discussing in-depth the issues raised by the participants.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will meet on Friday (October 20) to decide Pakistan's fate, ARY News reported.
According to sources within the Finance Ministry, a FATF plenary meeting is taking place in Paris next week. It is the first FATF plenary to be held under the two-year Singapore Presidency of T. Raja Kumar.
Pakistan is likely to exit the FATF's infamous grey list after a period of four years as it has successfully complied with the 34-point action plan related to terror financing and money laundering, ARY News reported.
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