Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who was the Army Chief during the Kargil conflict, had admitted to the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif that the conflict was a "misadventure" and had urged him to initiate steps to save the country from an embarrassment, a top leader of Sharif's party was quoted as saying on April 14.

Blaming Pakistan's Generals for the 1999 Kargil "fiasco", the acting president and Parliamentary leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that after the bloody clashes with the Indian Army, the three Services Chiefs sought an emergency meeting with Sharif at the Governor's House in Lahore and admitted that they had committed a "misadventure".

After the meeting with Service Chiefs, Sharif took all necessary steps to save the country from the impending embarrassment and finalised his plans to visit Washington, where he finally agreed for a ceasefire, Hasmi, a former minister, said.

On Sharif's return from US, Musharraf called on him and saluted him for achieving a ceasefire, Hashmi told a seminar.

The PML leader also charged that the present regime headed by Musharraf has greed to share command and control system of Pakistan's nuclear weapons with the United States, which, he said, would gravely hurt Pakistan's interest and Army's prestige.

On the possibility of the United States targeting Pakistan after its war in Iraq, Hashmi said there was no chance of it as US has complete knowledge of Pakistan's nuclear assets.

"Now a dual security system (of nuclear weapons) is in place. So why would Americans attack Pakistan when they already know about the location of our nuclear assets?" he said.

Referring to the statement of pre-emptive attack made by Indian Ministers, Hashmi claimed, "These war threats by India were being hurled on the behest of United States which had made a triangle with Israel and India in the region."

Hashmi, along with other Opposition leaders criticised Musharraf for bringing the Constitutional amendments to accrue more powers for himself.

He said an individual has no right to decide the fate of 140 million Pakistanis and Musharraf must relinquish those powers in favour of Parliament as stated by the 1973 Constitution.

PTI