Defence minister of pakistan says - If US cancels F-16 deal, Pak has other options

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that Islamabad would explore other options to meet its defence needs, if the F-16 deal did not materialise with the United States.Asif asserted that Pakistan was an independent and sovereign state and it could acquire defence related products from other suitable markets of the world, reports the Express Tribune.He spoke to Media after addressing a two-day international conference titled 'Refugee crisis and its ramifications for global and national security' organised by South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University in collaboration with the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), National Security Division and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.Highlighting that ups and downs in the bilateral relations between Islamabad and Washington was not an unusual matter, Asif said that overall ties between the two nations were better.Pressing that Shakeel Afridi was a Pakistani citizen, the defence minister said that Afridi would be tried in Pakistani courts and that no one would be allowed to interfere in internal matters of the country.He also said that durable peace in Afghanistan was of great importance for Pakistan.

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