Islamabad, Nov. 28: The Pakistan air force will get two US F-16s early next month as part of a deal reached between Islamabad and Washington earlier this year.

The US Congress has already finalised the deal and the planes are ready to be flown to Pakistan. As an acknowledgement of Pakistan’s role in the war against terror, the US is providing these two jets free of cost.

Pakistan is also expected to buy 75 F-16s from the US at a cost of $4 billion. Out of these, 50 are the new F-16 C/D versions while 25 are the old but upgraded versions of the aircraft. The understanding reached early this year also includes upgrading of 30 F-16s Pakistan received in the 1980s after the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops.

But the October 8 earthquake in northern Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir forced Islamabad to temporarily shelve its plans to buy the 75 F-16s until April next year.

President Pervez Musharraf had announced to postpone the deal during his visit to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir earlier this month but said that the F-16 aircraft is a security concern for Pakistan, signalling that the deal cannot be revoked altogether.

The two planes, now being flown to Islamabad possibly sometime later this week, are upgraded versions of the old aircraft that Pakistan had originally received in the 1980s and will be added to the existing fleet of more than 30 F-16s.