"I had no idea of the military coup: Sharif"Daily Times, April 11, 2007
LAHORE: : Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that he had “no idea” of the military coup and that the military took over “suddenly” on October 12, 1999.
In an interview to ARY television, Sharif said, “I was sitting in Prime Minister’s House when the television went off and I heard that the military was around and then I saw military entering and surrounding my office.”
Sharif said that meanwhile his wife Kulsoom telephoned him and asked about the situation. He said that later General Mahmood entered Prime Minister’s House with dozens of armed guards and asked him and Shahbaz Sharif to go with him. He asked Mahmood why the military had taken over Prime Minister’s House, and Mahmood replied: “Don’t you know the military has taken over because you changed the army chief?” Sharif said that later he and Shahbaz were taken to Rawalpindi in a vehicle with tinted glass.
Sharif said he gave the army immense support during the Kargil adventure though Gen Musharraf had “deliberately hidden some aspects of the Kargil war from me”. “Even then I took all the blame and saved the army. I didn’t ask President Clinton to call me in Washington and resolve the Kargil dispute, it was Gen Musharraf who pressed me to meet Clinton and resolve the Kargil issue,” Sharif said, adding that he didn’t want to take any action against Musharraf after the Kargil episode because he wanted to move forward.
“Gen Musharraf kept on hatching conspiracies against me and my government,” he said. Sharif said that he and Shahbaz were kept in a dark room in Rawalpindi, where he was forced to sign a paper. “It was written on the paper that I was suggesting the president to dissolve the assemblies, and also resigning from my office of prime minister,” Sharif said, adding that three army generals, including Gen Ahsanul Haq, threatened him of consequences if he didn’t sign the paper.
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