Imran Bhai thank you for asking me to give my views, here is what I think, after reading ur and IceCold's post:
I'm damn sure US will not place sanctions on Pakistan in the coming 10 years, because of the current situtation they are in, they r a lost cow at the moment, they r simply stuck in Afganistan and Iraq they would never sanction us especially now when they can start a war with Iran at any time, they need us more than ever, it can be justified by their increasing so called "MILITARY AND FINANCIAL AID", and one more thing PAF will not go for gripen fighters cause they have already selected F-16's over them, so eliminate gripen from the equation.
You mentioned rafale, if India selects it as the MRCA winner, I know one thing for sure that PAF will not be purchasing the same jet to counter the rafale threat, PAF will be looking for a real kick *** fighter which I think would be either Eurofighter or US F-18 SuperHornet (Eurofighter most likely to be the choice), I know that the price tag is above $100 million per piece for all three jets, but PAF does not need them in very high numbers 50 of either of these 2 jets eurofighter or f-18 can kick some serious rafale ***, cause we know one thing "if our brave pilots can kick *** in gulf war without any loss aginst Israeli pilots, then i think they can do anything, just think wut they can do with new block 52's or possibly in the future eurofighter or superhornet".
Regarding Chinese fighters,
, I completely agree with u, we know Chinese avaiation industry lacks in technology when compared to Western Countries that's why I would suggest that we do buy Chinese jets like the J-10 and the co-produced JF-17's but we should keep some new Western tech with us as well, cause if in the future we buy either eurofighter or superhornet as a response to MRCA, we can use one of those jets, study it and then use it to improve J-10's or any fighters with us at that time, this will reduce the technology gap between the Chinese and Westerns Jets but again, I would recommend that PAF should not keep all of its eggs in one basket (NO offence here to anyone by this statement), they should have Western jets with Chinses jets at the same in PAF.