@CriticalThought ,
My friend, i believe youare missing the point of the issue in the early 90s. The fact that Pakistan went with 40 F-16s seems like it would have been a good move given that it was far and away the best fighter in Asia when they got it. However, there were a number of alternatives that, while not being better fighters than the F-16, would have had a better impact on PAF.
1st is the F-20 tigershark. This derivative of the F-5 was eventually cancelled due to lack of interest in the export market but it was a true 4th gen fighter with 2 huge advantages for PAF at the time. 1) it was coming with the sparrow missile (which had a 45km range) and 2) all components including the GE-404 AND APG-67 radar (which had 148km range and also equipped the F-CK-1 from taiwan) were offered for local construction (similar to what Turkey does for F-16). It was offerd up for PAF to take over ownership of the design and PAF turned it down due to lack of interest from other countries.
2) The mirage F-1 was also offered in a similar fashion to the F-20 but this is more of a 3.5 gen fighter as it had no turbofan (was equipped with SNECMA Atar 09K-50, although later variants were offered with the SNECMA M53 from M2K). Local component manufacturing was also offered and it came with 6300kg capacity and 7 hardpoints which could be equipped with 37km Super 530 BVR missile (later replaced by MICA).
Thet were definitely less capable aircraft with greater limitations compared to the F-16 but they offered BVR where the F-16 didnt (it wasnt offered with Sparrow as the F-20 was) and PAF could build them in house. They could be further developed or their components could form the base for Pakistans own defense industry. They would be 20-30 years further along than they are,