Islamabad: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had kept Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, his successor as the Army chief, “in the dark” while carrying out the Kargil operation in 1999, a new book has revealed. Lt. General Abdul Majeed Malik (retd), a former minister, writes in his book Ham Bhi Wahan Moujood The (We were also present there), that General Kayani was then heading 12 Division, which was responsible for guarding Kashmir, but did not know anything about the operation. Mr Malik has written that General Musharraf did not keep General Kayani in the loop, who later opposed the operation.
He has alleged that Mr Musharraf was entirely responsible for the operation and he did not even brief the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about his plans. Mr Malik writes that General Musharraf called his Chief of General Staff from China to seek details of the information given to Mr Sharif about the Kargil operation, a briefing that was tapped by Indian intelligence agencies.
“It was a grave breach of security to discuss such a sensitive issue on telephone call,” Mr Malik has written.
According to him, Mr Sharif made a wrong decision when he appointed General Ziauddin Butt as the Army chief after dismissing General Musharraf.
The book also shares the details of Pakistan’s nuclear tests. For the tests, Mr Malik has given full credit to Mr Sharif, who, he wrote, was mentally ready to go for atomic tests despite opposition from certain close Cabinet members.
Meanwhile, former Pakistan ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Wednesday that Pakistan no longer enjoys the support of the international community over the Kashmir issue and must give up its “ideological obsession”.
