Sharif, Musharrag and Kargil
Barely a year after the 'war-like situation' of Kargil between India and Pakistan, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has stirred up another hornet's nest. Newspapers reported on 13 June that during a break in court proceedings at the 16th century Attock Fort, where he is detained, Sharif told reporters that he had not been informed about the Pakistan Army's foray into the strategic Kargil heights.
Reading from a prepared statement, Sharif said: "This ill-planned and ill-conceived operation was kept so secret that besides the prime minister, even some corps commanders and the air force and navy chiefs were kept in the dark." Had he been informed in time, he said, he would have dissuaded Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from making that famous bus ride to Lahore, which started the "Lahore Process" of reconciliation in February 1999 before Kargil brought it down in May 1999.