‘He (Musharraf) takes decisions in a hurry, without applying his mind’

It is yet uncertain when and in which shape things will settle down in Pakistan. We reproduce below edited and translated excerpts from the book, ‘Ghaddar Kaun? Nawaz Sharif ki Kahani, Un ki Zabani’ (Who is the traitor? Nawaz Sharif’s story in his own words) by Suhail Waraich — which offers clues to the calculus of one of the main players in the unfolding political turbulence in the country.

Published in Urdu in June 2006, the book is based on detailed interviews with Nawaz Sharif conducted in Saudi Arabia and London

On judiciary in Pakistan

The role of the judiciary in history has been suspicious. In my view Pakistan has been wavering from its path due to the collusion of the judiciary with the army’s top brass. The basic reason why democracy could not take root was the existence of such an alliance. Even if the army leadership was doing something wrong, the present situation could have been avoided and Pakistan would have stuck to democracy to some extent if at least the judiciary had acted correctly. If the judiciary had taken its first decision against the onslaught of the army, we would not have reached such a pass...

On appointing Musharraf

There is no doubt that we took this decision (of appointing Pervez Musharraf as army chief) in a hurry. We should have chosen the number one according to seniority. This was my mistake. I should have, at that time, made the senior-most General Ali Quli Khan or General Khalid Nawaz the chief of army staff...

The recommendations of intelligence agencies were against the appointment of Musharraf... In their opinion he was not an appropriate choice for the post of chief of army staff, because he was very impatient (jaldbaaz) and an agitated type of person (mushtaiil ho jaane wala banda). I am talking about the most directly concerned agencies and their view was that Musharraf should not be made chief of the army staff because he was not suitable for this post...

On Kargil

I have not been able to understand the logic as to why Kargil had been started, what we had to achieve in this and what were our targets. At least the political leadership should have a clear knowledge about what we were to achieve by this. I think it was not clear even to the army leadership... It is my personal view that the only target the army...

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‘He (Musharraf) takes decisions in a hurry, without applying his mind’

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