'Fake News': French Ambassador rubbishes rumours of Pakistan Air Force being trained to use Rafale fighters in Qatar

The French Ambassador to India, Alexandre Ziegler has categorically rejected the 'fake' media reports that claimed Pakistani Air Force pilots were being trained to fly Rafale jets.

In a tweet, Ziegler said, "I can confirm that it is fake news."

According to an independent news media outlet's report published in February claimed that the first Rafale jet was being delivered for Qatar and that the first batch of pilots trained were 'Pakistani exchange officers'

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Qatar in February took delivery of the first of 36 Rafale multi-purpose jet fighters it has ordered from French manufacturer Dassault.

The hand-over ceremony in Merignac, southwestern France, where the planes are built, was attended by Qatar Defence Minister Khalid bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah and Dassault Aviation chief Eric Trappier.

Qatar ordered 24 of the fighters in 2015, adding 12 more last year. It also has an option to buy 36 more.

Meanwhile, the Rafale controversy in India, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed preliminary objections by the government in the review petitions in the Rafale fighter jet case. Furthermore, the top court is set to fix the date for final arguments in the Rafale review. 

"We dismiss the preliminary objection raised by Union of India questioning the maintainability of the review petition," a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said in the top court. 

This allows the court to consider the "unauthorised classified" documents sourced by the media can be considered evidence in the case and a basis for re-examining its December verdict.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was hearing its December 14, 2018 judgment, wherein it had dismissed all petitions seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale fighter jet deal with France, saying that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the deal. The top court had also said that it was not its job to go into the issue of pricing of fighter planes.

On March 14, the PM Narendra Modi-led government filed a fresh affidavit in the apex court in the Rafale case, saying that "unauthorisedly-accessed" documents related to "internal secret deliberations" had been presented in a "selective" manner to mislead the court and amounted to damaging national security.

(With PTI inputs) 

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