LAHORE, Oct 1: Ruling PML president Shujaat Husain says he was present at a meeting when Gen Pervez Musharraf had briefed then prime minister Nawaz Sharif on the Kargil situation.

In a press release, Shujaat said Mr Sharif had asked certain questions in the briefing and Gen Musharraf had told him that he had briefed him on the subject five times. The general, the PML leader said, had also given dates on which briefings were given.

He said Gen Musharraf had leaked no official secret in his book, and he had only narrated the truth.

There was nothing wrong if the president had disclosed that Richard Armitage had threatened that Pakistan would be bombed to the stone age in case it did not cooperate with the US in its war on terror.

Shujaat said the president had the quality to speak the truth although various leaders were in the habit of telling lies according to the ‘law of necessity’.

He said he had only political, not personal, differences with Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif.

He said the PML-N had made a mistake by forging an alliance with the PPP as no Muslim Leaguer would ever vote for the PPP. However, he said, the ruling party was quite comfortable after the alliance between the two.

He said the PPP and the MQM were ‘personalised’ parties while the ruling PML was an open party where everybody was free to criticise the leadership.

Shujaat said he wanted to take all allied parties along.