When Pervez Musharraf blasted Nawaz Sharif for Kargil troop pullout; 'He kept asking me..'

Pakistan's former president general (retd), Pervez Musharraf, Army's four-star general passed away on Saturday. He seized political power in October 1999 after the senior officers loyal to him detained the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his ministers, thwarting the Sharif regime's efforts to dismantle Musharraf's power hold on Pakistan's armed forces.

Musharraf (79) died in a Dubai hospital from illness having spent years in self-imposed exile.  

Musharraf blamed Nawaz Sharif for Kargil withdrawal

In 2018, Pakistan's former dictator General Musharraf targetted Nawaz Sharif and blamed the ousted Pakistani PM for withdrawing from Kargil in 1999. It is to mention that Musharraf was the army chief during the Kargil War. Elaborating on the war in a video statement, he even dismissed Sharif's claims that he was not taken into confidence about the withdrawal of the Pakistan Army from Kargil. "He kept asking me whether we should withdraw," said Musharraf.

He further said that it was Sharif who issued the order to withdraw Pakistan army from Kargil when he visited the United States. "He (Sharif) blamed the whole thing on me," Pakistan's former army chief said.

Kargil conflict, the bloodied battle, provoked by late Musharraf: Sharif

However, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Sharif claimed that the Kargil conflict, the bloodied battle that ensued between India's Armed forces and Pakistan's Army from May to July in 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir was ordered by the then (retd) Army general Pervez Musharraf. 

Sharif maintained that Pervez Musharraf used Pakistan's Army for his own personal gains, adding that the now-deceased military General also toppled his elected government and blamed him for putting Islamabad into a political and security crisis. Pakistan's then Army chief General Musharraf had led the military regime after instigating his generals to overthrow Nawaz Sharif’s government. 

“Your armed forces have never, and shall never, let you down,” Musharraf reportedly said during a Pakistani televised address. "

We shall preserve the integrity and sovereignty of our country to the last drop of our blood,” he added. “I request you all to remain calm and support your armed forces in the re-establishment of order to pave the way for a prosperous future for Pakistan.”

The May–July 1999 Kargil War between Pakistan and India was the deadliest battle fought by the Indian armed forces to push back the Pakistani fighters who had infiltrated the Indian-administered territory. Clashes broke out on the tough terrain 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) above sea level in the now western Ladakh union territory, northwestern India. Sharif blamed the late Pakistani military ruler as the main architect of the conflict that sparked after Pakistani soldiers in the guise of Kashmiri militants infiltrated the Line of Control [LOC]. Nawaz Sharif, who was the Prime Minister of Pakistan at the time, was being instructed by General Musharraf, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. 

“The task of initiating the Kargil war, which witnessed the deaths of our [Pakistani] soldiers, and disgraced Pakistan in front of the world, was not done by the Army, but by a few generals," Sharif was quoted as saying by ANI. "They [Musharraf and his military seniors] threw not only the Army but the country and community in the war in such a place, that nothing could be achieved from it,” Sharif stated in a video, addressing a rally from London.

Pakistan's ex-premier labelled the moment as "painful" saying that Pakistan's soldiers "lamented that they were sent to the peaks, without food." Sharif went on to add that his soldiers "did not even have weapons. They sacrificed their lives. But what did the country or community achieve?” he added. 

India also later released a trove of documents and intercepted communication that proved Pakistan's military's role in igniting the war with India. Sharif also claimed in his biography titled Ghadaar Kaun? Nawaz Sharif Ki Kahani, Unki Zubani that the late General Pervez Musharraf had plans of using nukes against India during the Kargil War, slamming the move as “very irresponsible”. "During my post-Kargil misadventure meeting with American President (Bill) Clinton, I was told by the American leader that the nuclear warheads had been shifted from one station to the other during the Kargil War. I was taken aback by this revelation because I knew nothing about it,” the excerpts from his book read.