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Sharif admits he 'let down' Vajpayee during Kargil episode
On the eve of his return home, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to set up a commission if elected to power to fix responsibility for the "tragic" Kargil conflict even as he admitted that he had "let down" his then Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
On the eve of his return home, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to set up a commission if elected to power to fix responsibility for the "tragic" Kargil conflict even as he admitted that he had "let down" his then Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Maintaining that Pervez Musharraf was behind the 1999 Pakistani aggression in Kargil without his knowledge, he said the then Army Chief had "subverted" the process of improving relations with India and that he regretted not having taken any action against him.
Favouring friendly and peaceful relations with India, Sharif told Karan Thapar's "India Tonight" programme for CNBC that the Kargil incident continues to "haunt" him and will be remembered in the history of bilateral relations.
"Kargil was a very tragic incident in the history of the relations between the two countries....I wish it had not not happened," said the PML-N leader who was ousted as the Prime Minister by Musharraf in a bloodless coup three months after the Indo-Pak conflict.
"After Kargil, the Indian Prime Minister had said he was let down by the Pakistani Prime Minister (Sharif). I think he is justified in making the remarks. I accept that," Sharif said.
Insisting that he had no knowledge of Musharraf's plans about Kargil, Sharif said there were tapes to prove it.
He regretted not having set up a commission like India to go into the Kargil episode to fix the responsibility for it.
"I did not take certain actions which should have been taken," said Sharif, who was imprisoned after the coup and then forced into exile in 2001 by Musharraf.
