The Hindu : National : I never wanted to let Vajpayee down, says Nawaz Sharif

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I never wanted to let Vajpayee down, says Nawaz Sharif

NEW DELHI: Revealing fresh insights into the Kargil conflict, exiled former Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif has said he never wanted to let down his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee for whom he had “great regard” but had to cut a “sorry figure” after being “stabbed in the back” by Pervez Musharraf.

“I was never in favour of a war with India,” Mr. Sharif, deposed by Gen. Musharraf, his handpicked Army Chief, said in an interview in London to the India Today group editor Prabhu Chawla.

“I have great regard for Vajpayee. I never wanted to let him down,” said Mr. Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in October 1999, while recalling that Mr. Vajpayee had undertaken a state visit to Pakistan only a few months earlier.

The two leaders had then agreed on a slew of confidence-building measures after Mr. Vajpayee had crossed the Wagah border in the inaugural Delhi-Lahore bus.

Gen. Musharraf is “someone who can never be trusted. He said he would retire as army general before December 31, 2004. He has never fulfilled that commitment,” Mr. Sharif said.

Asked whether Gen. Musharraf had kept him in the dark about the Kargil war, Mr. Sharif said, “He let me and my government down. He stabbed me in the back. I cut a sorry figure before Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee.”

Mr. Sharif, who had decided to pull back his troops after his meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington, was asked whether he felt something had gone wrong.

He said Gen. Musharraf had committed a “blunder and embarrassed me”.

Mr. Sharif said he had held a three-hour long meeting with President Clinton. “Then he [Clinton] called up Mr. Vajpayee in the middle of the night. We felt the conflict in Kargil could lead to a full-fledged war between the two countries which could ultimately turn into a nuclear conflict.” “We did our best. We are also thankful to Mr. Vajpayee for his cooperation which made the ceasefire possible,” he said.

He said Gen. Musharraf’s three army generals “came to see me on the day of the coup. They brought two papers with them and wanted me to sign them. One was about the dissolution of the National Assembly and the second paper was my resignation as Prime Minister. I refused to sign the papers and sent them away.”

Asked when he planned to return to Pakistan, he said he intended to do so before the elections. — PTI

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