Exactly. However, we have a habit of setting unrealistic expectations that cause us to compromise and fail later.
The al-Khalid MBT, Agosta 90B, etc all fell to this issue.
I would rather we run a true indigenization program with a consistent and healthy stream of funding across 20-30 years without any pressure on deadlines, expediency, etc, and actually get our own fighter (+ critical inputs, CNCs, jig manfuacturing, etc, etc) by 2040, than to never get it because we lost heart failing due to not setting the right expectations early.
By separating immediate requirements from in-house R&D and domestic production, we can safely remove our generals from leading such posts (and instead leave leadership to engineers and scientists from those entities). There's no need for 'prudent administration' or 'completing X in only 5% the time' nonsense.
Let's take AZM and the FGFA for example.
AHQ can delegate the development of AZM to the R&D community. From now to 2040, AHQ can focus on inducting the FC-31. If it adds a few economists to the negotiating team, we can even construct an offset agreement with the Chinese. Yes, we may not even build a single part of the FC-31 in Pakistan, but we might get 33% (or even 99%) of the contractual cost return to Pakistan via target investments, barters and other benefits from China. So we can maintain our macroeconomic balance while supporting defence. We may even channel offsets to supporting our private sector aerospace industry by giving them revenue, investment, etc to set-up capacity for later.
From 2040, AHQ can go to AvRID and ask, "can we develop an indigenous fighter?" And with now 20+ years of solid R&D work under its belt, AvRID can give a solid plan on how to do it. No more worrying about critical inputs, we'll know how to either develop them or how to integrate them without relying on a foreign supplier. Once we get the fighter ready, PAC can subcontract the manufacturing work to the private sector (which by then would have the capacity to support the work thanks to the offsets via FC-31).