Exiled former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has claimed in his official
biography claims that General Pervez Musharraf moved nuclear warheads during
the Kargil war so that they could be used against India without his knowledge.
Sharif says that during his meeting with US President Bill Clinton, he was
informed “the nuclear warheads had been shifted from one station to the other
during the Kargil War.” Claiming to have been “taken aback” as he “knew nothing
about it,” Sharif says that “It was a very irresponsible thing to do on Gen.
Musharraf's part.”
Sharif’s 500 page biography titled Ghadaar Kaun? Nawaz Sharif Ki Kahani, Unki
Zubani (Who is the traitor? Nawaz Sharif's story in his own words), was written
by senior Pakistani journalist Suhail Warraich and recently released in Lahore.
New Delhi chose to ignore the claims but analysts say that this only confirms
what India new all along that the command and control of nuclear weapons is
with the army and not the civilian establishment. Former Military Chief V.P.
Malik deals with this issue extensively in his book and that India factored in
the nuclear aspect at the time of the Kargil conflict. Malik also seems to say
that Clinton may have bluffed Sharif to extract a diplomatic solution. India
expects that, the book will have more of an impact on Pakistan’s domestic
politic and it will only help in sequencing events before and during the Kargil
episode. It may also corroborate what is already known to the security
establishment.
Sharif also claims that he did not know about the Kargil operations and got to
know of it when he got a brusque call from the former Indian Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Malik quotes Musharraf and others to say that Sharif was
aware of it but may not have absorbed the consequences and intensity of the
misadventure. If he knew about it before, however superficially, then he
certainly negotiated the so-called Lahore Declaration in bad faith.
Sharif also says that the Pakistani army suffered heavy losses of and the
entire Northern Light Infantry with 2700 soldiers was wiped out due to carpet
bombing by the Indian air force. He also says that that number of Army jawans
“martyred” during the Kargil war is more than the numbers during the 1965 and
1971 wars.