Your concerns regarding Military leadership thinking are much valid, And Maybe a reality.
But think of it yourself, Dragging in Foreign COMPANIES FROM CHINA OR TURKEY WITH EXPERIENCED WORKFORCE IN THAT DOMAIN instead of investing in local freshly graduated with nill experience and Not impressive History of Local Organizations especially as per the requirements of the era,
Which option seems more practical to you ?
Definitely as the requirements are kinda immediate, You won’t bother local kids and resourceless orgs, Instead invite those that have already done the work for their own countries, To get things on track fast enough,
And even if this fails, Then you custom order your required products for Space Program.
Now tell me, What would you do if you were a General ?
Here's what I'd do:
It's not a question of practicality, but creativity and vision.
Don't think in "either/or" but rather, "and."
So, in this case, you can task the STEM community and private sector to figure out the satellite program. Give them the requirements, delivery time-frame, and cost estimate. Start by awarding a $25 m study. Once we do that, the 'satellite group' will figure the rest out on their own.
Remember, they're staffed with PhDs and businessmen with deep pockets and contacts. They can conduct a local audit to see what Pakistan
can do domestically, and what it
can't. In fact, if there's no silos and "scorty" red tape, we'll find out that Pakistan can actually do a lot, either right away, or with additional R&D funding.
For the areas that Pakistan can't, this 'satellite group' will talk to Turkey, China, South Africa, Ukraine, USA, etc to find the inputs it actually needs. It might even hire seasoned experts from those countries to help with design.
The 'satellite group' will come back to me with a step-by-step action plan with itemized cost quotes of what it will take to develop and launch those satellites. We then see if we can afford it. If we can, then we give the green light and start releasing the funds for each developmental stage.
Of course, we set-up ironclad safeguards -- e.g., if they fail to meet the deadline, they surrender the contract and pay a penalty fee (we can use Turkey's model as an example). But if we had audited the 'satellite group' plan with a sharp eye, we wouldn't end up in this situation.
Anyways, to develop this satellite, the private sector itself will start building a lot of capacity for R&D and manufacturing. In all likelihood, it will start re-using this capacity to sell specific goods and services to other countries, thereby bringing in ForEx and, in turn, improving the quality and localization.
So, when we start tendering the 2nd generation of satellites, the 'satellite group' will come back with a better design with more local content. Obviously, the 'satellite group' will export even more with each generation, so the ForEx return increases, as does our tax revenue, as do the scope and budgets of our programs.