Musharraf should be tried for treason: Sharif

PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday demanded that President Pervez Musharraf be tried for "treason" after a retired ISI general said that the former premier was kept in dark about the 1999 Kargil misadventure by the then Pakistan army chief.

"I have been asking for a commission to probe the Kargil issue for a very long time.... Kargil was a very big blunder committed by Musharraf it was a misadventure that was a major failure," Sharif said at the airport in Lahore before departing for London.

Sharif, who has maintained that his consent was not taken before the operation, said he has been vindicated after Lt Gen (retired) Jamshed Gulzar Kayani, a former aide of Musharraf, told a Pakistani TV channel last night that Sharif was not taken on board initially about the Army's plan to intrude into Kargil.

Kayani, however, said that on learning of it, Sharif offered to support the operation as long as it meets success.

"Pakistanis are raising their voice for greater accountability. Musharraf should be put on trial for whatever he has done in the last nine years.... There should be trial for treason and disloyalty towards the nation," Sharif said, adding "dictatorship is the enemy of Pakistan".

Holding Musharraf, who was the then army chief, responsible for the intrusion by Pakistani troops into the Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir, Sharif, whose PML (N) is part of the ruling coalition, said a commission should be set up to probe the episode.

Musharraf, he said, should be tried for treason for his actions over the past nine years, for overthrowing the elected government on October 12, 1999 and for imposing emergency on November 3 last year.

Sharif said "Musharraf told me something and he told the army something else. He said Nawaz Sharif was saying we should surrender, but that was a big lie."