Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 26, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=26501
Introduction: Kashmir would have
been solved, Kargil sabotaged it: Sharif
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif, in his first ever interview since his exile in 1999, has said that
he and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had decided on a deadline for
a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute but Kargil sabotaged the plans.
''I can only say that Vajpayee and
myself had almost decided on a deadline for a peaceful resolution of the
Kashmir dispute. Vajpayee's visit to Lahore was a link in the chain. Had
it not been for Kargil whereby all our plans were sabotaged, the issue
of Kashmir would have reached an historical resolution long ago,'' he told
Khalid Hasan of the Daily Times.
He said that Kargil was a long story
but hoped that ''the true version of the misadventure of Kargil shall not
remain a secret like the truth behind the fall of Dhaka.'' Sharif added
that all events in the aftermath of the Kargil, especially October 12,
1999, were inextricably interlinked. ''Kargil is a skeleton in Musharraf's
closet. For the time being, I can only say I took everything on my shoulders
to save our army from a major embarrassment,'' said the man who was thrown
out of power by a coup led by Musharraf.
Sharif ruled out any compromise
with Musharraf, and a return to Pakistan by ''arrangement'' with the General.
