Islamabad, July 06: Producing newspaper clippings former prime minister Nawaz Sharif nailed what he called as Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s “utter falsehood” that he (Musharraf) had not asked him to go to Washington to seek the then US President Bill Clinton’s help for a ceasefire in Kargail in July 1999.
“He was pushing me to go to Washington for talks on Kargil situation for a face-saving retreat,” Sharif told reporters in London. The clipping showed a Dawn report datelined Karachi, June 26, 1999, citing Musharraf as hinting at “ongoing efforts” to arrange a meeting between prime minister Nawaz Sharif and US president Bill Clinton on the Kargil issue. Sharif flew to Washington a week later on July 4 to meet Clinton who had set Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil as precondition for the meeting.
Musharraf, who is also currently in London, claimed in a TV interview last week that he was totally in the dark about Sharif-Clinton meeting until the prime minister informed him about it just before flying off to Washington. “Nawaz Sharif has been telling lies about Kargil,” Musharraf had said.
Sharif said Musharraf had actually wanted a face-saver to cover up the Kargil debacle and so he kept pressing him to approach the Americans for the purpose. “I should have taken him along,” he added with a broad smile.
The general boasted that two days before Sharif’s departure he had briefed a stop level meeting chaired by Nawaz Sharif to explain that military situation on Kargil was sound. But he left it to the political government to take a decision on withdrawal.
Information secretary of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Ahsan Iqbal, says Musharraf had trapped the premier to shift responsibility for Kargil disaster which he later used to instigate military coup against the government. He quotes retired chief of US CENTOM, Gen. Anthony Zinni, writing in his book that Musharraf urged him to persuade Sharif to go to Washington.
–Agencies–