There are fundamental factual differences in the two situations:
Dassault is one of the most well established defence companies in the world, whereas Powerus has a very limited track record and is clearly benefiting substantially from its links to the Trump family, which has a personal financial stake in it.
Paras is a private sector company that has paid for a license to use Powerus' anti-drone technology. At the time it signed the contract, it took a risk that the Indian government, its most likely customer, would never place an order and its investment in paying for the license would go down the drain. The Indian taxpayers were not on the hook, though now that Pakistan has decided to purchase drones from Powerus, the Indian government is very likely to place a larger order for their antidote based on technology from the same supplier, which is conveniently available to be "made in India". From Pakistan's perspective, taxpayers are paying for a purchase that clearly looks like a favour to the Trump family and which it is not clear why similar equipment could not have been purchased from one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of other companies in the world that had not already made available the counter to an Indian company.
Finally, once Pakistan is invested in the Mirages, Dassualt is the natural partner to purchase the upgrade package from, notwithstanding their relationship with India. What is Powerus offering to Pakistan that was not available from far more established Turkish, Chinese , or even European and American suppliers ?
What is the eventual goal for Paras?
Was it ever going to sell to a private grammar school?
There is NO DOUBT on the deal being negotiated without merit.
But, that is still not relevant to the actual aspect of what the deal enables and whether Pakistan is putting its eggs in any basket or not.
You have unqualified retd colonels in charge of departments in SPD who buy equipment at 5x its price because their cousin is involved - make money and this junk then sits rotting away.
That is quantifiable post mortem.
In this case we have NOTHING on the deal while the military has already purchased and deployed drones at scale - so then what is the actual nature of the critique?
Is it money spent? Nothing has been bought or spent yet - no records or even rumors of it other than this MoU.
Do you know how many trash MoUs Pakistanis sign left and right?
Is it systems compromised? What has been bought? what has been integrated with? What has not performed on which any reports exist of compromise other than the contention that because an Indian company took agency for once specific product therefore whatever Pakistan might(not even has) purchase from Powerus is automatically compromised.
Which part of this deal - has ANYTHING to do with whether or not the current dictator in Pakistan is at loggerheads with a particular political opponent?
Nawaz Sharif was willing to give up nuclear weapons to have F-16s manufactured at Raiwind.
Musharraf gave his family a contract to paint 777 tails.
Neither of those actually go onto the merit of whether the F-16s are compromised or 777s cannot fly.
What is the history of Powerus other than Ziv Marom's background which has everyone crying foul?
He DID NOT FOUND POWERUS. His company was acquired by Powerus last year.
Powerus backbone is SOF advisors in Ukraine and venture capitalists - it is a private equity rollup(so probably a crappy place to work in terms of both job security and sales) - and the product in question is a battle tested Ukrainian product WHICH PAKISTAN HAS TESTED which these guys bring in localization and fast production for - technically all things Pakistan does want.
Criticize the right things at least - which is likely Asim munir (whether he deposed or hangs Imran Khan by end of year is IRRELEVANT TO THIS DEAL) and cabal in their dealings with Trump took an existing recommendation to get this interceptor from Ukraine and gave it to this company to try and secure both a want and goodwill with Trump.
