WASHINGTON: Pakistan has refuted a claim made by a Utah gun maker, Desert Tech last week that the company had turned down a $15 million deal to sell precision rifles to Pakistan.

In response to media queries regarding the Associated Press’s report, a spokesman of the Pakistani embassy in Washington Friday said Desert Tech's claim that they were approached and short listed for a $15 mln contract to provide Pakistan with precision rifles, which they turned down, is “without basis.”

According to the report, Mike Davis, sales manager at Desert Tech, said the company was on a short list for a contract with Pakistan, but spurned the opportunity because of unrest in Pakistan and ‘ethical concerns’.

It was a difficult decision because of the amount of money involved, he said, and the sale of rifles to Pakistan would have been legal.

The Pakistani spokesman said: “On the contrary, Desert Tech never even made it to the shortlist, though the company had shown interest in securing the deal initially.”

“Desert Tech’s first and foremost ethical responsibility should be honesty. The company unfortunately clearly violated it by fabricating a story that at best is a publicity stunt,” the embassy said in a statement.

“Pakistan and the United States enjoy a productive and mutually beneficial defense partnership, now for decades – a relationship that has been particularly critical more recently in fighting terrorists and in protecting our two peoples. Any insinuation to the contrary is unwarranted and misguided,” the statement underlined.