...Pakistanis have no interest of their own in the wel being of their motherland----. Do you believe for a moment that any person who loves their motherland, would treat it as pakistan is being treated by them----
I hope you don't mind, but I think I am not in the position to talk about the mindset, the believes or other personal things of Pakistanis, that's why I stick to politics, defence or technical issues only and you might discuss the other part with Pakistani members.
Where I agree with you is, that PAF should have tried to aim higher than light class fighters, that's why I often stated here, that a partnership on J10 would have been way better than for JF 17, next to F16s. However, senior Pakistani members then told me, that China never offered that, only JF 17 partnership and that imo shows how the situation back then really was.
If not even China saw Pakistan as a partner for their higher end fighters, why should have western countries sold their high techs and weapons to a country that was under sanctions and from their point of view back then, (just like India) a non legal nuclear powered 3rd world country?
So with that in mind, which fighters were really available for Pakistan after 9/11? Rafale and EF wasn't as mentioned before and just because PAF had asked Dassault for infos of Rafale later, doesn't mean France would have sold them, let alone PAF could have procured them in useful numbers. Apperently neither J10 (as a partnership) or J11 (as a procurement) were available from China, the US sanctions and not open policies towards Pakistan clearly were a problem too, which can be proven by the fact, that they didn't offered better fighters to PAF than F16 Block 52s and even those with limited weapon configs only.
Were F18SH with AESA available?
Were F15s available?
Were at least F16 Block 60 via the close political relations of Pakistan to UAE available?
The answer to all this is no and that makes Gripen or Mirage 2000s to the only alternative western fighters that might have been procured which both are pretty much in the F16 class and far away from what you think PAF could have bought.
Only because Pakistan might had the money back than like you say, it doesn't mean that all the countries would have sold PAF the weapons and techs they wanted.
Yes---JF17 is sanction proof---so why don't you go and tell your su30mki pilots and order them to give it a handicap when in combat---.
By the same logic, IAF Mig 21 Bisons, 27 UPG and Jaguar UPG pilots must ask JF 17 pilots to give a handicap as well, because they are clearly inferior to a propper 4th gen fighter like JF 17 right?
The point is, good numbers of JF 17 gives PAF a capable low end base, with more capable F16s and J10s above them. Adding lower numbers of Gripen instead, would have made PAF more dependent on the US and would not added much more capability to PAF to be equal to MKI or IAF in general. As mentioned, the addition of AWACS is much more important to counter MKI or IAF, than any fighter addition.