ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with a private British television channel recently, claimed that he had came very close to resolving the long pending Kashmir dispute with India, and that he had never advised the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to withdraw troops from Kargil.

But according to the Dawn, the “Commando” (Musharraf), forgot to tell the whole truth.

In the television interview, Musharraf said that he had explained Sharif in clear terms that a final decision about withdrawing troops from Kargil remained with the country’s leadership.

Musharraf very easily skipped to admit that his close pal and the then US CENTCOM chief General Anthony Zinni, had visited Pakistan in the third week of June 1999.

General Zinni had met Musharraf first and then Sharif.

General Zinni, in his book named, Battle Ready, has clearly mentioned that he was sent by US Administration to convince Musharraf and Sharif to de-escalate troops presence in Kargil.

“I was directed by the administration to head a presidential mission to Pakistan to convince Prime Minister Sharif and General Musharraf to withdraw their forces from Kargil. I met with the Pakistani leaders in Islamabad on June 24 and 25 and put forth a simple rationale for withdrawing: ‘If you don’t pull back, you’re going to bring war and nuclear annihilation down on your country. That’s going to be very bad news for everybody,” the book states Zinni, as saying.

Furthermore, Zinni adds that Sharif had actually agreed to withdraw forces from Kargil after his meeting with the then US President Bill Clinton.

“Sharif was reluctant to withdraw before the meeting with Clinton was announced (again, his problem was maintaining face); but after I insisted, he finally came around and he ordered the withdrawal. We set up a meeting with Clinton in July,” he added.

The most interesting and disgusting part of the interview was when Musharraf tried to blame the present democratic set-up of Pakistan for the Swat mayhem.

Referring to the illegal FM radio station set-up by the top Taliban commander, Mullah Fazalullah aka Mullah Radio, over which he used to pronounce his diktat, Musharraf said the FM station was set-up after the 2008 elections when he had to step down, but the truth is that the Taliban’s frequency was yielding the banned outfit’s decree from 2006 itself, when Musharraf was still in command of things. (ANI)