ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: PML-N central information secretary Siddiqul Farooque has said Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's controversial interview with India Today on Kargil has made the appointment of a judicial inquiry commission on the subject all the more necessary and unavoidable.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he said the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had already offered to testify before the proposed commission, and Chaudhry Shujaat also must repeat his remarks, that he had made in the interview, before the commission on oath.

He said the foreign minister and finance minister of that time as well as all persons directly linked with the operation would also have to testify to the facts related to the operation, while the commission would also go through relevant documents to arrive at the truth.

He said the people were these days getting contradictory information on the issue, while they had the right to know unbiased truth, which only a judicial inquiry commission could provide them.

He said that the commission would not only determine causes of Kargil failure, background of Nawaz Sharif's Washington visit and overall responsibility, but also would formulate recommendations to avoid such situations in future.

The PML-N leader said putting the investigation of such a great tragedy in cold storage of secrecy would indeed amount to a conspiracy against national interests.

He said that appointment of a commission was necessary to punish the persons responsible for the tragedy, so that no adventurer could dare to play with national interests in future; otherwise the enemy would cause recurrence of such episodes directly or indirectly to fulfil its designs against Pakistan's security.

He said the prime minister's apprehension that the formation of a commission would lead to allegations and counter allegations indicated his ignorance of the procedure. He said statements recorded with such commissions were kept secret unless the report was completed.

Referring to Chaudhry Shujaat's fears that advent of a commission would sabotage the current Pakistan-India peace talks, the PML-N leader said Chaudhry Sahib should know that India's Kargil Committee presented its report to parliament on February 24, 2000, while it was put on internet on April 24, 2004 for all the world to see.