- Pakistan didn’t lose any planes, says DG ISPR.
- Adds Pakistan never tried to play with facts.
- “We are open to all sorts of technology.”
Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry praised the performance of Chinese-made weapons systems used during its four-day clash with India in May this year, saying they performed “exceptionally well,” The News reported citing Bloomberg.
“Of course, lately, recent Chinese platforms, they’ve demonstrated exceptionally well, ” Lt Gen Chaudhry said in an interview last week from Islamabad.
“We are open to all sorts of technology,” he added.
The May clash saw Pakistan’s first major use of modern Chinese-made systems, including J-10C fighters that Islamabad credited with downing multiple Indian aircraft, among them French-made Rafales. The systems’ performance has drawn intense scrutiny since the conflict.
The DG ISPR said Pakistan had recently raised its tally of Indian aircraft shot down to seven, up from a previous count of six, and matching the figure floated last week by President Donald Trump, who told an audience in Virginia, “they just shot down seven planes,” but did not specify which side did so.
A spokesperson for India’s Ministry of Defence didn’t directly address the new claim, and instead referred to a Friday speech by India’s Air Force chief in which he claimed India allegedly destroyed about a dozen Pakistani aircraft during the conflict.
The DG ISPR said in his interview that Pakistan didn’t lose any planes. “Pakistan has never tried to play with figures and facts,” he said.
In August, Pakistan announced the addition to its arsenal of the Z-10ME attack helicopter, a model similar to the one China uses to patrol its border with India.
Last month, President Asif Ali Zardari travelled to the Chinese city of Chengdu, where he visited the defence company that makes the J-10 fighter jet.
The ISPR chief declined to say whether Pakistan would keep favouring Chinese arms, noting the country buys equipment from both China and Western nations. “Our development strategy has always been to induct the most effective, efficient as well as economic platforms and technology,” he said.
Pakistan is not in a military catch-up or an arms race with India, he said, adding that it has a military budget “a fraction” the size of its neighbour’s. “We don’t have the luxury of unlimited money at our disposal,” he said.
Pakistan allocated $10.2 billion to defence spending last year, compared with $86.1 billion for India, according to SIPRI.
As a share of each country’s GDP, however, their defence spending was roughly equal, 2.7% for Pakistan and 2.3% for India.
