Musharraf asks Sharif to stop 'misleading' people about Kargil

"Nawaz Sharif is lying about his reaching an understanding with the (then) Indian Prime Minister (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) in 1999 to resolve the Kashmir issue. He is also not speaking the truth on the Kargil episode," said Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan for over eight years.

Addressing a convention of workers of his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party in Lahore via video-conferencing last night, Musharraf asked Sharif to stop "misleading" the people about Kashmir and Kargil.

"I tell you he (Sharif) was completely aware of what was going to happen on the Kargil front. Now he is pretending to be ignorant of the whole affair and passing the buck on others," he said.

"In the Lahore Declaration, there was not a single word about Kashmir and he (Sharif) is claiming to have made efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute. Is it not astonishing?" he added.

Musharraf also demanded an independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, who was abducted and killed after he alleged the Pakistani navy had been infiltrated by al-Qaeda.

"Those involved in the murder of the senior journalist should be punished as nobody is above the law. Media should not be curbed by such heinous acts," he said. Punjab province's financial health is in a bad shape because of the poor governance by the leaders of the PML-N, Musharraf claimed.

He alleged that both the Pakistan People's Party and the PML-N had failed to deliver and the people's miseries had been compounded during their regimes.

Musharraf, currently living abroad in self-exile, said his All Pakistan Muslim League will emerge as a third force in the country's politics.

He said he would return to Pakistan on March 23 next year and asked the government to refrain from creating hurdles in activities organised by his party.

Police initially did not allow APML workers to gather at the venue and uprooted the stage.However, the workers managed to later erect display screens for the address by Musharraf.