Lahore, Oct 18 : Though it has now become “so critical” for the Bush administration to provide Pakistan with new and refurbished F-16 jet fighters to fight the Taliban, the US Congress is still not sure as to why Islamabad needed the jets when it was fighting the extremists on the ground.

According to a Christian Science Monitor (CSM), the US Congress was not sure “Islamabad could be trusted to use the planes against tribal Taliban”.

It said: “The US Congress members wanted to know why Pakistan would need a jet fighter with ‘air-to-air’ fighter capability when all the Pakistanis really need to fight Taliban from the air is a plane or helicopter with ‘air-to-ground’ or ‘close air support’ capabilities”.

The report said the long-proposed sale of new and refurbished F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan “has become so critical to the Bush administration, which believes the old fleet of fighters the Pakistani Air Force is using now aren’t effective”.

It quoted Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson as saying “there is a real danger that the weapons will be used for purposes other than that war.”

He believed the US would be able to sell the planes to Pakistan, ‘albeit with restrictions’. Defence officials said Pakistan must meet other security requirements ‘to house the planes’ so the F-16’s technology ‘does not fall into the wrong hands’.

Meanwhile, the US military begins a training effort inside Pakistan this week that ‘holds promise’ as the US is desperate to help Pakistan fight Taliban in the Tribal Areas. (ANI)