The Hindu : 'Kargil blocked Kashmir solution'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

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'Kargil blocked Kashmir solution'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD June 25. The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has alleged that but for Kargil a "historic resolution" on the Kashmir issue would have been reached long ago.

In his first-ever interview since choosing to go into exile in Saudi Arabia towards the end of 2000, Mr. Sharif has claimed that he and his Indian counterpart, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had "almost decided a deadline" for a peaceful resolution of the problem. Of course, he had made similar claims in the past. But that was before leaving Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif and his family left the country in December 2000 after a `deal' with the Musharraf regime that he would neither dabble in politics nor return to Pakistan for 10 years.

The interview to the Washington correspondent of the Daily Times, Khalid Hasan, through e-mail was based on 20 questions put to Mr. Sharif of which he chose to answer 13.

Maintaining a mysterious silence on the events leading to the Kargil conflict, weeks after the Lahore Declaration, Mr. Sharif said he would reveal the `long story' at the appropriate time.

He said he took everything on "my shoulders" to "save the army from a major embarrassment".

He also held the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, responsible for the present political deadlock and ruled out a return to Pakistan by "arrangement" with Gen. Musharraf.

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