Revealing fresh insights into the Kargil conflict, exiled Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif has said he never wanted to let down his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee for whom he had "great regards", but had to cut a "sorry figure" after being "stabbed in the back" by Pervez Musharraf.
"I was never in favour of a war with India," Sharif, deposed by Musharraf, his handpicked army chief, said in an interview in London to India Today group editor Prabhu Chawla.
"I have great regards for Vajpayee. I never wanted to let him down", said Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in October 1999, while recalling that Vajpayee had undertaken a state visit to Pakistan only a few months earlier.
The two leaders had then agreed on a slew of confidence-building measures after Vajpayee had crossed the Wagah border in the inaugural Delhi-Lahore bus.
Musharraf is "someone who can never be trusted. He said he would retire as army general before December 31, 2004. He has not fulfilled that commitment," Sharif contended.
Asked whether Musharraf had kept him in the dark about the Kargil war, Sharif said, "He let me and my government down. He stabbed me in the back. I cut a sorry figure before Indian prime minister Vajpayee."
To a specific query whether he was unaware of the attacks being planned, Sharif said "not all the details."
Sharif also said that information regarding the war was not shared with him as it should have been.