23 April,2009 04:34 PM IST | | PTI
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been accused by a former air force chief of 'ruining' a $1.2 billion deal for acquiring surveillance aircraft from Sweden's Saab firm for 'possible kickbacks'.
Former Air Chief Marshal Saadat Kaleem has claimed that despite the Pakistan Air Force's opposition, Musharraf put pressure on the force to modify a contract to reduce the number of surveillance aircraft to be purchased from Saab from six to four and to include two Chinese systems.
The contract originally envisaged the purchase of six Saab airborne warning and surveillance systems and a Saab 2000 aircraft for VIP flights.
He told 'The News' that Musharraf "personally exerted pressure on him" to modify the contract.
Kaleem said he was opposed to this because of objections raised by PAF experts on technical grounds. He said after he retired in March 2006, the contract with the Swedish firm was modified to include two Chinese systems.
"It was done with mala fide intentions," Kaleem said, adding such modifications were usually made due to 'some motivation factor'.
The PAF had cautioned that the Chinese system was inferior to the Swedish one and that the two systems were incompatible. One of the systems was superfluous and the mix of two different technologies is bound to create more problems instead of serving the purpose for which the project was conceived, he said.
