Thanks for providing detailed info, however there are few things which I don't understand;
(1) Super 7 was another project on which Grumman was hired as consultant but 1989 infamous tiananmen square protests every US and Western consultant pulled off.
(2) Sabre II was a project on which Grumman was hired as consultant and Grumman concluded that project was not financially viable so PAF scraped it.
(3) There was another project namely Project-33, A Russian design to compete with F-16 (single engine), due to financial issues and Russian Air force not comfortable with single engine, it never went beyond blue print, later on Chinese in 1998 purchased design, research and test data from Mikhoyan Bureau.
After sanctions Fighter China project was launch in 1991. Now in 1995 PAC and CAC signed MoU for join development and in same year Mikhoyan joined the project for "design support".
Now point to note here is that in 1995 Pakistan was in talks with Western country (France) for Avionics, radar, targeting pods, night capabilities. PAF was on good terms with these French companies due to ROSE-1 2 3 upgrades and had experience.
But in 1998 after Nuclear tests sanctions were imposed so almost every Western country pulled off.
Also about engines, before 1989 tiananmen square protests Pratt & Whitney Pratt
offered three engine options; Rolls Royce also offered engine options.
Can you clear confusion that
(1) JF-17 is evaluation of all above projects?
(2) In 1995 PAC /CAC signed MoU for joint production of fighter aircraft. In 1998 after Nuclear tests sanctions were put on Pakistan.
So after 1998 Pakistan was not in position to plan any Western systems, engines which were susceptible to any sanctions so earlier in 1995 French systems envisioned for JF never saw the light of day.
(3) In 2001 PAC/CAC separated the development of Avionics with airframe, so it is indication that Pakistan has fully realized the sanction prove Western systems and started looking elsewhere but to make sure project is delivered on time Pakistan separated the airframe development from Avionics.