"Objective view emerging in Pakistan...": MEA on Nawaz Sharif's comments on Lahore Declaration
May 30, 2024
New Delhi [India], May 30 : With former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stating that Islamabad "violated" the agreement between him and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India on Thursday said "an objective view emerging in Pakistan as well as on this matter".
"You are aware of our position on this issue. I need not reiterate that. We note that there is an objective view emerging in Pakistan as well as on this particular matter," Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the weekly media briefing.
He was responding to queries on Nawaz Sharif's remarks made in a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
The agreement mentioned by Sharif is "Lahore Declaration," which he and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed on February 21, 1999.
Under the agreement, the two governments agreed that they shall intensify their efforts to resolve all issues. They also reaffirmed their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and their determination to combat this menace.
But months later Kargil war erupted between the two countries as about 1500 Pakistani troops intruded into Indian territory in Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir with the aim of severing link between Kashmir and Ladakh.
The three-month long confrontation between India and Pakistan commenced in May 1999 and Indian forces recaptured the peaks occupied by Pakistani troops.
Nawaz Sharif admitted on May 28 at PML-N general council meeting that Islamabad 'violated' an agreement with India in 1999. Nawaz Sharif assumed the presidency of the ruling party, six years after his disqualification by Pakistan's Supreme Court.
"On May 28, 1998, Pakistan carried out five nuclear tests. After that Vajpayee Saheb came here and made an agreement with us. But we violated that agreement...it was our fault."
During the PML-N general council meeting, Sharif asserted that he conducted nuclear tests despite facing pressure from the United States and subtly criticized former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
"President Bill Clinton had offered Pakistan USD 5 billion to stop it from carrying out nuclear tests but I refused. Had (former prime minister) Imran Khan like a person been on my seat he would have accepted Clinton's offer," Sharif said on a day when Pakistan marked the 26th anniversary of its first nuclear tests.
