28 July 2004	Wednesday	10 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, July 27: Challenging Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Husain's assertion that as the head of government he was aware of the Kargil operation, Mian Nawaz Sharif has said that the man who worked for peace with India could not have approved such a plan.

In a letter to the parliamentary leaders of his party in the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures, the former prime minister rebutted the statement made by Chaudhry Shujaat at a recent news conference on the Kargil conflict.

He said that Chaudhry Shujaat, interior minister at the time when the operation was underway, was not aware of the matter. "Is it not logical that the author of the Lahore initiative (Mr Sharif) would not be the one to sabotage the environment of rapprochement between the two nuclear neighbours which they had so painstakingly created", the exiled former prime minister asked, dissociating himself from whatever had happened at Kargil.

Mr Sharif directed the parliamentary leaders of his party to raise the matter in their respective houses and seek answers from the prime minister of the questions he was sending.

"The regional political environment and time was of rapprochement between the two nuclear powers. Lahore Declaration and Kargil, therefore, could not go hand in glove by any measure. The fact is that the news of war with India came as a shock not only to the prime minister but also to the naval chief, air chief and other senior military commanders of the three services", the letter said.

Kargil, being Gen Musharraf's bane, was bound to hunt him until "it reaches its logical conclusion i.e. accountability". "However", Mr Sharif said: "My immediate concern is the ill-conceived and sycophant statement of Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Husain wherein he has said that I was taken into confidence on Kargil".

He said: "This assertion that Kargil is a 'collective responsibility' and that he can give dates of meetings between then prime minister and the COAS speaks of his lack of understanding of the issue.

The dates can always be obtained from the official records but what transpired in the GHQ meetings, where he was not even present, is what matters, more importantly the developments that preceded the first briefing on the subject in the GHQ".

Mr Sharif said: "The main issue is of obtaining prior approval of the government before using war as an option. Kargil which had the germs of escalating into exchange of nuclear warheads between India and Pakistan was a very serious matter.

The regional political environment and time was of rapprochement between the two nuclear powers. Lahore Declaration and Kargil, therefore, could not go hand in glove by any measure".

He advised Chaudhry Shujaat to first understand the issue at hand, analyze it and only then give his verdict. "In the absence of the concrete evidence he is better advised to refrain from making any senseless and absurd statements".

The questions raised by the exiled former prime minister were:

1. Now that you are the prime minister, do you consider the PM office as the approving authority or the one which merely needs to be taken into confidence on national issues with strategic overtures.

Your assertion that the then PM was taken into confidence is very difficult to digest specially so in the case of a PM who had the people's mandate to back him.

2. Since you were the interior minister and part of Mian Nawaz Sharif's team, which initiated confidence-building measures with India, resulting into Mr Vajpayee's visit to Lahore and the historic Lahore Declaration, will you explain the purpose of the Kargil episode? Is not it logical that the author of the Lahore initiative would not be the one to sabotage the environment of rapprochement between the two nuclear neighbours which they so painstakingly created?

"Therefore it is obvious that it was not Nawaz Sharif, but Gen Musharraf, who started the short-sighted and ill-conceived Kargil war without any approval from the government.

3. What do you have to say in the light of the revelations made by Gen Zinni, (former US) president Bill Clinton and Strobe Talbott that it was Pervez Musharraf who actually requested and urged Nawaz Sharif to withdraw troops from Kargil with president Clinton's indulgence.

4. Could you state your reasons for not allowing an independent inquiry commission to bring out the facts of Kargil if you so strongly feel that no one but the then government is to blame?