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Nawaz Sharif seems to have tied up everything in his mind: Benazir Bhutto will sweep the polls in Sind and he, in Punjab - the NWFP giving 60 per cent to Benazir and Baluchistan 60 per cent to him. He may not first put in his claim to the prime minister's chair and instead he would let Benazir occupy it first. Both are in touch with each other on the phone regularly.

For a person who has been in the wilderness for more than three years, Sharif sounded resolute and determined. There was not a note of despondency during the conversation I had with him in Jeddah for five hours spread over two days recently.

The deposed prime minister had no doubt that the military rule in Pakistan had run its course - once and for all, no matter what people say. He, for one, was convinced of this. He seemed willing to wait till whatever time it took but he would never come to power on the shoulders of the military.

Sharif resides in an old palace. He not only looks corpulent but also opulent. But then he has always been known for his regal style. He keeps a lavish table. Ornate furniture, carpeted floors and glittering chandeliers - you name it and it is there.

Two guards open the front gate - one of them is a Saudi Arabian policeman and the other is from one of the many servants he carried in the jumbo jet when he flew from Islamabad to Jeddah to take refuge in Saudi Arabia. He would have visited other countries but his passport has not been renewed for the past one year. Several reminders to Islamabad have not evoked even an acknowledgement.

Sharif feels let down by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's initiative on Pakistan. The former Pakistan prime minister is all for rapprochement - but not when the real power is in the hands of the armed forces. Any agreement with the military would have a question mark against it.

A co-architect of the Lahore accord, Sharif is personally hurt because Vajpayee was supportive of him and had reportedly said after he was overthrown that Sharif was ousted because of his efforts to make up with India.

Sharif, however, feels that the Indian prime minister has let General Pervez Musharraf off the hook when he was under tremendous pressure from within Pakistan and the world powers.

Even otherwise, it did not behove a democratic India to talk to those who had usurped power through a coup. Such seems to be Sharif's thinking. I believe that a leading editor from Lahore some time back met him with a message from Musharraf for a compromise.

Even in Islamabad, his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Party has been approached by the military. There have been persistent efforts to wean him away from him his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, at present in the U.S. But Nawaz Sharif does not want to have anything to do with the military.

While in detention, Sharif was treated worse than a criminal. For months, he was kept in solitary confinement. When flown from Islamabad to Karachi for trial, he was handcuffed to his seat. His son, who is running a steel plant which Sharif has established near Jeddah, was also put behind bars. His story is no different.

Sharif seemed particularly bitter about the way in which the army kept him in the dark over Kargil. He was not aware that the Pakistani troops were fighting till Vajpayee rang him up to complain. He had been told by the army that the mujahideen were up in arms. Sharif sounded categorical when he said he was not on board, the allegation which Musharraf had made after the failure at Kargil.

Musharraf's repeated requests to Sharif to ring up then U.S. President Clinton to intervene was to get Pakistan out of the situation in which it had got embroiled. But before going to Washington, Sharif tried to send his foreign minister, Sartaj Aziz, to New Delhi.

Vajpayee was so upset that he refused to meet him. Clinton brought about the ceasefire by requesting Vajpayee on the phone to allow Pakistani troops to withdraw. Sharif must have felt utterly humiliated.

The abortive Kargil action, which took place without his knowledge, angered Sharif. He seemed to have made up his mind to punish those who were responsible for it. Musharraf was on top of the list, followed by Lt Gen Mehmood and Lt Gen Aziz. The three got an inkling of it and began preparing for the coup.

It was only after the defence secretary was sent with Musharraf's dismissal order, signed by the prime minister and endorsed by the president, that the army top brass swung into action to remove Sharif. The navy and air force chiefs did not know anything about the coup till the army informed them.

Musharraf was at that time on a flight from Colombo to Karachi. Islamabad instructed the pilot to delay the landing of the plane or not to land at Karachi airport which had been taken over by the army by then. The pilot expressed his inability because he was short of fuel.

Whether he landed at Karachi because he was short of fuel or whether Musharraf's service revolver forced him to land will never be known. Musharraf had apparently come to know of his dismissal - and the coup - on the plane itself. Sharif was sure of one thing: he had made a mess of the timing. The rest is history.

Sharif and Musharraf had decided to oust each other. Musharraf struck first. But in the process he knocked out an elected prime minister. I do not know why in the midst of our conversation Sharif abruptly brought in former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and inquired whether the cases of "corruption" against him were over. I told him I did not remember.

Probably one was still pending. Was Sharif thinking of the cases of corruption against him in the Pakistan courts? But the unkindest cut came at the end of the conversation. Are you from the BJP? he asked. 


(Kuldip Nayar, Gulf News)