Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khwaja Asif, has claimed that Islamabad was getting record orders for fighter jets and wouldn’t need IMF’s financial assistance after six months. This, he said, came after the four-day mini-war with India. Here’s a look at Pak’s public debt and liabilities vis-a-vis Asif’s claim.
Pakistan, which was forced to sell its flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) because of an IMF condition, might not need the multinational financial body’s assistance after six months, according to claims by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. The minister’s assertions came on the back of a claimed surge in defence orders that Pakistan was receiving, including of a Chinese-origin fighter jet. However, going by Pakistan’s economic conditions and its role in the jet’s production, Asif’s claims are in the zone of daydreams.
Speaking to the Karachi-based GeoTv on Tuesday, Khwaja Asif claimed that defence orders with Pakistan have surged to such an extent after the May 2025 four-day mini-war with India that Pakistan might soon be able to forgo loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Asif told GeoTV that Pakistan’s ability to withstand the May 2025 India-Pakistan mini-war had translated into increased global demand for its military hardware.
“Our aircraft have been tested, and we are receiving so many orders that Pakistan may not need the IMF in six months,”Asif said, arguing that the world has taken notice of Pakistan’s military capabilities.
PAKISTAN JUST ASSEMBLES JF-17, IMPORTS MAIN COMPONENTS
Khwaja Asif, who has a record of making exaggerated claims, made the assertion on Tuesday, even as a news report on Wednesday said the Shehbaz Sharif-led government was weighing various options to convince the IMF to allow relaxations in key macroeconomic and fiscal parameters for the 2026–27 budget, according to Pakistani newspaper, The News International. Pakistan might request some relief in the IMF’s stringent loan conditions.
Reacting to Khwaja Aif’s claim, Pakistani political scientist-author Ayesha Siddiqa said, he is “sounding like a lot of journalists that claim to cover defence — simply can’t tell the back of a plane and a submarine from its front. Pakistan has around 35% share of the JF-17 Thunder airframe. That doesn’t leave enough money that could rescue Pakistan from IMF”.
While it is true that Pakistani fighter jets such as the JF-17 and J-10 have found buyers in a handful of countries like Azerbaijan and Libya, and that Bangladesh is in talks over the latter, analyst Ayesha Siddiqa underlined a crucial caveat. Only about 58% of the JF-17’s airframe (which she claimed was just around 35%) is actually produced in Pakistan, with revenues shared with China, the principal designer and manufacturer of the platform. Pakistan manufactures only a limited set of components, and even the proceeds from exports are reportedly split between the two partners.
The JF-17 Thunder fighter jet has components from multiple countries like Russia, China, Italy, Turkey, and the UK, other than Pakistan. Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder jets run on the Russian-made Klimov RD-93 turbofan engine, a variant of the RD-33 series.
Given that Pakistan’s share in the JF-17 programme is limited and revenues are shared with China, the net amount Islamabad is likely to earn per aircraft is only a fraction of the sticker price. Seen against the scale of Pakistan’s debt burden, even optimistic jet sales could barely register. This makes the claim that fighter jet exports could meaningfully and effectively offset Pakistan’s debt liabilities look arithmetically implausible.
So even if a JF-17 is sold for $15 million and a J-10 for $40 million, how much of that actually accrues to Pakistan? Would that be enough to settle a debt and liabilities pile of around $300 billion as of early January 2026?
AFTER DEFEAT, PAK RESORTED TO OP SINDOOR FAKE NEWS
While Pakistani experts have, in effect, debunked Khawaja Asif’s claim that Pakistan stands to gain massively from fighter jet sales, the very argument he latched onto — the jets’ supposed stellar performance in the mini-war with India — is itself flawed and largely unfounded. Even as Pakistan’s political and military leadership repeatedly claimed to have shot down several Indian aircraft during India’s precise and limited Operation Sindoor, the reality on the ground pointed the other way. The Pakistan Air Force is assessed to have lost between four and nine fighter jets, including aircraft destroyed on the ground at key bases such as Bholari and Nur Khan in BrahMos strikes.
Nearly 20% of PAF infrastructure across 11 air bases reportedly suffered extensive damage, with runways cratered and hangars collapsing. It’s critical assets, including a Saab 2000 AWACS, TPS-43J radar systems and key communication networks, were wiped out by Indian strikes. These effectively blinded the PAF’s detection and command capabilities. These losses, coupled with around 50 personnel deaths, were among the setbacks that ultimately forced Pakistan to seek a ceasefire.
Now, weeks ago in December, Pakistan sold its national airline, Pakistan International Airlines, for PKR 13,500 crore (Rs 4,300 crore) after being forced by the IMF to privatise it as part of fiscal-prudence measures and asset divestment.
This makes Khawaja Asif’s claim of jets selling like hot cakes sound like a daydream rather than an economic reality, especially weeks after Pakistan had to sell its national airlines to a private entity.
PAKISTAN’S ECONOMY ON VENTILATOR: PAK ECONOMIST
Pakistan, whose economy even Pakistani economists say is on a ventilator, has total public debt and liabilities hovering between PKR 81 trillion, or roughly $280–300 billion. Its external debt is around PKR 26 trillion, according to Pakistan’s finance ministry’s statement in 2025.
“Servicing these [debt] obligations consumed PKR 8.9 trillion in FY25, over half of total federal revenues,” according to a report in the Karachi-based Dawn in September 2025.
In a November 7 video interview with the Inqalaab Voice YouTube channel, host Faisal Waheed asked Pakistani economist Qaiser Bengali whether Pakistan was heading towards a default. Bengali responded bluntly that Pakistan had “already defaulted”.
“Have we achieved stability by taking loans? We have already defaulted. When a country is unable to repay its debt and survives only by taking new loans to pay old ones, that is defined as default,” Bengali said. He warned that Pakistan’s economy was effectively “on a ventilator of debt”, adding that if lenders such as “China or Saudi Arabia refuse rollovers or fresh financing, the economy would collapse. “The day we try to act independently and on our own terms, even this ventilator will stop working,” he said.
Amid such an economic situation, the assertion of Khwaja Asif that Pakistan might be able to do without IMF loans in six months seems nothing but daydreams.
