New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS) The Pakistani Army, despite its troubling record of shielding terror elements, has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United States firm, under which Islamabad will reportedly get access to Ukraine drone technology.
The drone deal, signalling the revival of US-Pakistan defence co-operation has already raised serious concerns about regional security.
According to reports, the Pakistani Army signed the MoU with Powerus last month on September 16, with Field Marshal Asim Munir representing the Pakistani side.
The agreement includes an initial order for unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Powerus co-founder Brett Velicovich.
The US drone firm Powerus signed the MoU with Pakistan Army that includes an initial drone-related order, the PJ Media reported quoting the company’s co-founder Brett Velicovich.
The deal comes a year after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for “creation of Arab Islamic task force to adopt effective measures toward Israeli expansionist designs”, at the Arab-Islamic Summit in Qatar, last year.
According to PJ Media, Pakistan had signed another MoU, earlier this year, with SC Financial Technologies, an affiliate of the World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the main crypto business of Trump’s family.
Although Washington has ceased supplying Islamabad with weapons, the modernisation packages for previously delivered F-16 fighter jets, the Powerus deal has been a major cause for concern for regional players and the world on a whole.
The Powerus deal has drawn attention because of its potential to expand Pakistan’s access to drone technology.
For decades, Pakistan has remained a safe haven for terrorists, given that its military establishment uses some terror groups for its own political purposes.
It has also been found to be providing safe refuge to UN-designed terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its active splinter groups like the Resistance Front (TRF), to execute terrorist operations.
The dastardly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam last year by terrorists trained in Pakistan, deliberately targeted civilians based on religion.
As many international intelligence and security experts hold Pakistan accountable for using regional terrorist groups as “proxies” to advance its geopolitical interests, with its military and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in focus, the drone deal has raised eyebrows from multiple regional players.
–IANS
mr/khz