"Gohar Ayub Khan said (his father) was preparing the Pakistan Army to fight a war with India to get Kashmir liberated. For this purpose, he followed a long term policy," The News reported Monday.

In a wide ranging interview with the newspaper, Gohar also claimed that an Indian brigadier had sold for Rs.20,000 the operational plans the Indian Army had drawn up as war loomed on the sub-continent in  1965.

According to Gohar, the first thing that Ayub Khan did was to join the Baghdad Pact as this enabled Pakistan to get American military aid in the shape of ammunition, guns, tanks, submarines, fighter planes and naval ships that Pakistan could not otherwise afford.

The Baghdad Pact, later known as the Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO), was in force from 1954 to 1979. It was initiated by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to involve Asian nations in a worldwide chain of anti-Soviet alliances Washington was putting together.

The equipment given to Pakistan by the Americans was technologically more advanced than what India had, Gohar said.

"He claimed that the Pakistani Army was secretly saving the ammunition to dodge the Americans who were keeping a record of military equipment being given to Pakistan," The News said.

The 1965 war with India put paid to Ayub Khan's plans. The mauling of the Pakistani Army and the economic decline the war triggered resulted in a chain of events that saw Ayub Khan handing over power to Gen. Yahya Khan in 1969.

Gohar, 68, is widely perceived to be a hawk. He is known to be still upset over what he considers the raw deal meted out to his father. A former speaker of the National Assembly and a former Pakistani foreign minister, Gohar is opposed to normalising relations with India.