India is not enemy No. 1

As the powerful military here held out threats to India, former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif has said Islamabad must stop treating New Delhi as its "biggest enemy" and conduct a reappraisal of ties with the neighbour "if we want to go forward and progress" .

Sharif, who was in power when the Kargil crisis erupted , also sought a probe into the 1999 conflict with India.

The former PM said said he was stunned by then Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's remarks in 1999 that the Kashmir issue could be resolved. Vajpayee proposed back channel diplomacy to resolve long-standing issues and the process was about to start when the "Kargil dealt a severe blow to our efforts" , he said.

The former PM, who is the chief of main opposition PML-N party, is currently on a three-day visit to southern Sindh province where he made the remarks during an interaction with the media in Karachi. He called on the government to also conduct an inquiry into the 2006 killing of Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation in Karachi on May 12, 2007 that killed over 40 people who tried to rally in support of then-deposed SC chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Sharif, whose government was deposed in a military coup led in 1999, reiterated his demand for the budgets of the military and ISI to be placed before Parliament for scrutiny.