Former Pakistan interior minister, Major General (retd) Naseerullah Babar, has disputed ex-foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan's claim that an Indian brigadier had sold India's operational plans for the 1965 war for Rs.20,000.

"An army deserter has spoken after 40 long years. It is 2005 while the war took place in 1965," The News daily quoted Babar as saying.

Gohar Ayub Khan, son of former Pakistan president Ayub Khan, had recently made the sensational disclosure. He said he would reveal the name of the officer, who is still alive, at the time of the release of his book based on his father's numerous personal diaries.

Babar, a Pakistan People's Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) leader, pointed out that Khan, a captain in the Pakistan Army, had deserted to join his father-in-law Lt. Gen. Habibullah Khan's flourishing business.

Babar argued that the Pakistan Army and Air Force would have made preparations to defend the country's international borders at Sialkot, Lahore and elsewhere in time if they had known India's 1965 war plan as claimed by Khan.

He said during the war, Pakistan did not know the location of India's One Armoured Division, which had moved to Samba on Kathua road in Jammu and Kashmir, while the Pakistan military thought it was still in Jandiala in Punjab.

"This became evident when an Indian soldier-despatch rider carrying mail was intercepted by members of Pakistan's special services group and letters addressed to commanders of the One Armoured Division in Samba in Jammu and Kashmir were found.

"We ought to have known this fact if India's secret war plan had been sold to Pakistan," Babar said.

He also pointed out that Pakistan had no idea that India would open a new front on the international borders after getting pinned down in Jammu and Kashmir.