Ex PAF Air Chief asked to appear as witness

By By Usman Manzoor

The National Assembly’s standing committee on defence has convened former air chief Saadat Kaleem as witness to publicly scrutinise the multi-billion dollar defence deals by the Pakistan Air Force. The committee took up the matter when a news item appeared in this newspaper regarding non-scrutinised deals of the PAF worth billion of dollars having procedural violations and compromise on technology. Syed Haider Ali Shah, a member of the committee, told The News that a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Defence has been convened for June 27 (Saturday) and the former air chief Saadat Kaleem has been asked to attend the meeting as a witness. The former air chief when contacted said that he would not offer any comment to the media. He neither denied nor confirmed whether he had accepted an invitation from the Standing Committee on Defence to appear as witness.However, a committee member told this correspondent that the former air chief had conveyed to the committee that he would appear before it only after getting permission from the chief of the army staff. Saadat Kaleem had accused General (retd) Pervez Musharraf of ruining the PAF’s $1.2 billion Saab surveillance system deal by adding the Chinese technology to the Swedish for possible kickbacks, producing a mismatch. It was reported that the PAF Air Board had been bypassed in quite a few defence deals during the recent years owing to pressures both from within and outside the force. This newspaper reported that before the last major PAF deal worth $1 billion for the first consignment of JF-17 aircraft, an influential Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) pilot having close association with the holder of a high office in Islamabad was seen visiting the top offices at the Air Headquarters in Islamabad. Following these visits towards the end of January 2009, the $1 billion deal on JF-17 moved on a fast track.The same PIA employee interestingly travelled to China, along with President Asif Ali Zardari, in February this year to obtain a one billion dollar loan. According to the report, besides the latest deal, the PAF Air Board was also ignored in quite a few other deals worth $800 million struck with Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Italy in the last few years for purchase of different technologies for the PAF.

Posted in: AWACS,Pakistan