In Pakistan a controversy has broken out again over who initiated the 1999 Kargil War. It was triggered by the release of a book titled “How Long This Silence”, written by Shahid Aziz, a retired Lt-General who was serving with the ISI during the war. Aziz revealed that the entire Kargil operation was executed by Pervez Musharraf, the then army chief, in consultation with a core group of officers and makes the hard-to-believe claim that even the ISI was kept in the dark. The big question still remains though: Did the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, soon after he signed the landmark Lahore agreement with Atal Behari Vajpayee in February 1999, give clearance to Musharraf to occupy the Kargil heights? Or did Musharraf keep his own Prime Minister and the powerful ISI in the dark and presented Sharif with a fait accompli?

Five years after the Kargil War, on a trip back from a report on post-war Iraq for India Today magazine, I flew into Jeddah to meet Sharif, who was then living in exile in Saudi Arabia. In a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia soon after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, Sharif, who had been jailed for life, was pardoned and allowed to fly out with his family to Jeddah, where he was provided refuge in early 2000. The deal reportedly was that Sharif would not indulge in political activity while he was there or speak out against Musharraf.

A file photo of Nawaz Sharif with Pervez Musharraf in PoK.

Sharif had maintained a silence on what transpired in Kargil and had refused to give interviews, though off-the-record conversations had leaked out. He agreed to meet me at his residence at the imposing Saroor Palace close to the Red Sea, provided to him by the Saudi monarchy. As we chatted, he told me that he spent most of his time watching television and had a fondness for re-runs of old Hindi songs.

I told Sharif that India had regarded him as a friend when Vajpayee made the famous bus trip to Lahore but felt betrayed by what Pakistan did in Kargil. It was as if I had struck a raw nerve, for Sharif then spent the next hour speaking to me with stunning candour, giving me a detailed account of his version of what happened during the build-up to Kargil and the aftermath.

Sharif told me, “If Mr Vajpayee says that Mr Sharif has stabbed him in the back, I think he is absolutely right. Because he visited Pakistan in February that year and in May we were attacking the Indian forces in Kargil, which was absolutely wrong. I hold Musharraf responsible for this. I can only tell Mr Vajpayee that I did not know that I was being stabbed in the back by my own general.”

Sharif told me categorically that Musharraf had never briefed him that he was planning a major offensive in Kargil. According to Sharif, “Musharraf didn’t brief me on these things. He had no authority to start any war with India without the permission of the Prime Minister, without the permission of the government and without the Cabinet’s approval. Let me tell you that the rest of the army was not aware of it. The other corps commanders were not taken into confidence. The air chief and the naval chief were absolutely ignorant of it.”

My next question was why didn’t Sharif then sack Musharraf? Sharif claimed, “Initially, when the scuffle had started, Musharraf told me it was the mujhaideen that were fighting in Kashmir. Later on I got a call from Vajpayee Sa’ab saying, ‘Your army is attacking our army’. Frankly, I wasn’t briefed. When I realised what happened, I wanted the war to end. After the war was over, rather than removing Musharraf straightaway I felt the proper thing was to first appoint a commission and have a thorough investigation into the whole matter.”

After I published Sharif’s interview, Musharraf, who was President then, was reportedly furious and told his then Prime Minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, to refute the charges. I flew into Islamabad to interview Hussain, who had been Interior Minister during Sharif’s tenure. Shujaat Hussain called Sharif “a liar” and told me that Musharraf had briefed the Prime Minister about his Kargil plans in March. Sharif had then got the entire Cabinet to do namaz and pray for its success. I published the interview with Shujaat Hussain and the Pakistani newspapers played it up prominently.

A visibly relieved Musharraf met me at his Rawalpindi residence along with his Prime Minister the next morning. During the course of the conversation, Musharraf asked me whether I had taped the interview with Sharif. I understood the import of that question, for if I had said yes, then Musharraf would have charged Sharif with violating his agreement with Saudi Arabia that he would not indulge in political activity while in Jeddah. I maintained that Sharif and I had a casual conversation and I had decided to make it public in the interest of the truth. Sharif had trusted me when I spoke to him, and I wasn’t going to betray that trust. I have not answered that question till date.

raj@tribunemail.com