‘I won’t accept any deal Musharraf signs on J&K’

“Frankly, I don’t recognise Mr Musharraf as the legitimate president of Pakistan. I don’t recognise Mr Musharraf’s government as the legitimate government. He is guilty of subverting the Constitution…So if I accept this document, or a treaty that Mr Musharraf signs with India, then it amounts to giving recognition to Mr Musharraf. Or legitimising his government. So there is a principle involved. For me, it is very difficult to compromise on that principle.”

On the peace process, Sharif said: “I don’t agree with Mr Musharraf’s policy. He is acting in a very casual manner. He is giving different options on Kashmir off-the-cuff, he doesn’t consult the Parliament, he doesn’t consult the political leaders in Pakistan, he doesn’t consult the political parties in Pakistan. There is no institutionalised decision-making system in Musharraf’s government. India, I think has also resented that, saying this is not the way to give proposals, through the press, and talk to us, through the press. So if you ask me this question, whether I would recognise (an agreement between India and the Musharraf regime), I would not.”

For a resolution of the Kashmir issue, Sharif hoped that India would be a bit more patient, wait for democracy to be installed in Pakistan again.”It is up to India to see whether it wants to talk to a dictator, a man who has no following in Pakistan. I would like to ask you, ‘Who does Musharraf represent’? Does he consult the Parliament? Does he take the people of Pakistan into confidence?”

When told that India can’t wait forever, he said, “What is the hurry? Why is India so impatient…Democracy is coming back to Pakistan, it is always good that two democracies talk to each other, rather than a democracy talking to dictatorship.”

Sharif also reached out to his Indian counterpart during Kargil, A B Vajpayee, saying he was “grateful” to the former Indian PM for having helped avert a nuclear conflict between the two countries during the war.

With Kargil almost immediately following the historic Lahore summit between the two in early 1999, Sharif admitted that Vajpayee was justified in feeling that Pakistan had stabbed him in the back.

“Actually, it was my government, on the Pakistani side, which averted a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan. I think it is a tremendous service to humanity. I am also very grateful to (former) prime minister Vajpayee, who also extended full cooperation. And he also felt let down. He also felt (that he had been) stabbed by the Pakistani counterpart. I think he also has said that I didn’t know that Mr Nawaz Sharif would stab me in the back. Not knowing that Nawaz Sharif himself was being stabbed in the back by his own Chief of Army Staff.”

Asked if Kargil was as much a surprise to him as it was to Vajpayee, Sharif pointed to the famous tape of a conversation between General Musharraf and the then Chief-of-General Staff General Aziz Khan during Kargil, which suggested that Sharif had been kept in the dark about the operation.

“The tape has all the evidence in that, the conversation between Gen Musharraf and Gen Aziz is clear proof of that. I think it says it all,” said Sharif, adding, “I handed it over to Mr Musharraf also. I said you have been trying to hide something from me. Now listen to this. He was stunned. He had nothing to say. And that is, I think, a turning point. That was the turning point… Even his close confidantes, his corps commanders and two chiefs of the armed forces, the Chief of Air Staff, and the Chief of Naval Staff were not aware of the Kargil adventure.”