Sharif's move to dismiss me was a 'coup': Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's move to dismiss Gen Pervez Musharraf as army chief was a "coup" that prompted the military to assume power in October 1999, the military ruler says in his autobiography.

"His (Sharif's) was the coup. It was gross misuse and misappropriation of law; you cannot summarily dismiss the army chief, a constitutional appointee, without giving him just cause and affording due process," Musharraf writes in "In The Line Of Fire" that was released on Monday.

"Sharif intended to it to be the final act before he assumed all power in the office of the Prime Minister. The army's response was counter-coup," he says, defending his decision to assume power.

Musharraf overthrew Sharif on October 12, 1999 shortly after the government tried to sack him as army chief and refused to permit a plane bringing the general from Sri Lanka to land in Karachi.

"The counter coup -- for there can be no other words for it -- began at five pm when the news of my removal was announced on TV and took only three and half hours. It would be by 8.30 pm when Lt Gen Mahmood Ahmed, commander of the Rawalpindi Corps, entered Prime Minister's House and took Nawaz Sharif into custody," he writes.

"I have no compunction about admitting that the army was caught unawares by the Prime Minister's sudden action of dismissing me and following it up virtually simultaneously with sudden and abrupt changes in the military high command," he says.

As Sharif took steps to make Ziauddin the army chief, commanders loyal to Musharraf decided to act. "Aziz Khan, Mahmood and Shaid Aziz had not the slightest doubt that Sharif's coup had to be thwarted. Enough was enough, they would lead the counter coup," he says.

Before Musharraf travelled to Sri Lanka, Sharif "carefully cultivated" him to provide an impression that he had patched up with him after months of tension over the Kargil issue.

Despite the rapprochement, Musharraf writes, "He was waiting for the right time to strike. I am inclined to believe from the evidence I gathered. The right time was when I would be completely inaccessible to the army and thus unable to lead it, flying at 35000 ft in foreign airspace."

But Sharif handled the coup in a "clumsy and reckless manner; not allowing my plane to land, nearly letting it crash and even suggesting that it go to India", he said.

When the pilot informed authorities on the ground that he was low on fuel and could not go to Muscat, "the DGCA asked his air traffic controller an amazing question: could my plane go to Bombay?" Musharraf writes.

"I have seen idiots and more idiots. But this question was beyond my belief. The controller replied in the negative," he writes in the chapter titled "Counter Coup".

"When Nawaz Sharif is sending my aircraft to India was he not committing treason?" he says, citing a Supreme Court judgement which said as the army chief, Musharraf held a constitutional post and his removal was "void and no legal effect".

He says he was lucky his plane was unexpectedly delayed in Colombo and Male. "Had my plane arrived on schedule, the army would not have had enough time to react and take Karachi airport to prevent my arrest."

Sharif's loyalists in the army too offered resistance, he says. "More than once, officers and soldiers of the counter-coup came eyeball to eyeball with the armed personnel of the coup. It is only by the presence of mind and the grace of God that a bloodbath was averted."