Now that I've seen that it should be understood that you can freely mix the Pak'ma'ra with other League elements, I have to amend my viewpoint:
If you consider the League was fair before, then the Pak breaks it. Animus has the right of it. On their own, my comments above hold, but the synthesis with the other elements of the League is beginning to be disconcerting, espeically with (no surprises here!!) Vree scouts.
Initiative penalties really aren't so big a deal on core ship elements if you have sufficient initiative sinks to cover up for them. If the ship was the central point, the onlythings you need CQ for are typically Damage Control and an occasional Come About (for Fleet Carriers, it's Scramble!). Wing elements frequently need such checks -- attempts to come about to get to the fight in question and such -- but the core usually has the opposing center lined up somewhere against them. This means the only problem with the P'shul'shi is Damage Control -- I real concern, but given its capabilities as compared to a simiarly design-philosophy vessel, the Mankhat, I doubt that'll cause any tears. And, again, the upgrade over the current option, the Tashkat, is substantial.
When you include a Pak ship in your fleet, you are admitting to the -3. I get that. But, you lose some of the impact of this when you make boatloads of Sunhawks viable buys. And make no mistake, the Pak Sunhawk is a pure upgrade to the Drazi Sunhawk.The ability to engage repeatedly at range with heavy firepower instead of only once or twice given the Sunhawk's range limitations is a major change.
Most mixed League fleets were losing in the initiative column often anyways -- the scouts the Vree provided were just too much a draw to deny, so you took the +0. That's already a hard road to climb to win inititative; by going to the Pak, you're just admitting to the likely loss. And, the option to have large numbers of patrol craft (Sunhawks again!) blunt this impact substantially.
My concern about bad Pak scouts is, of course, pointless -- you only buy Vree scouts. Simiarly, dogfighting isn't an issue -- you only buy Tzymm for this. This leads to my concern about the large quantities of Fuser Torpedoes -- consider that it will, likely, have a CAF effect that the Vree scout will generate. You now have, by far (I can't think of a single ship that comes close) the best attack Patrol craft, far outclassing the Sho'Kov or the only other viable option I can think of, the Hermes, by a goodly amount, paired with the best scouts in the game.
Of course, the Ikorta issue goes away --- you always just buy the (also dubious) Brikorta with its shiny new Laser anyways. I expect the new Halik to be a wash, but the Haltona is not to see the board again -- if you want that philosophy, just by the Pak Halik.
So, the balance question has been transformed: were the League weak and needed a balance upgrade that the P'shul'shi and gthe Sunhawk provide?? I hadn't heard this argument from the community as a whole before. I doubt I buy it.