Acknowledging Pakistan’s mistake, former Prime Minister of the nation Nawaz Sharif accepted on Tuesday that Islamabad ‘violated’ an agreement with India in 1999. Sharif’s repentance came during his speech as he assumed the presidency of the ruling party, PML-N, during a meeting of its general council.
Lahore Declaration
Sharif referred to the “Lahore Declaration,” an agreement he signed with India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on February 21, 1999, aimed at promoting peace and stability between India and Pakistan. Despite this, shortly after the signing, Pakistani troops moved into the Kargil district in Jammu and Kashmir, sparking the Kargil War.
In the ‘Lahore Declaration’ both nations, India and Pakistan, agreed to share a vision for peace and stability between their countries, believing that an environment of peace and security is in the supreme national interest of both countries and that resolving all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, is essential for achieving this goal.
Among other points, the agreement also acknowledged that nuclear capabilities increase countries’ responsibility to avoid conflict.
What Sharif confessed?
Nawaz said, “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.”
He asserted that he conducted the nuclear tests despite pressure from the United States to avoid doing so.
“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 in my seat, he would have accepted Clinton’s offer,” reported ANI, quoting Nawaz Sharif.
Earlier in 2018, the former PM was ousted by an apex court bench headed by then-chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar from the position of political party president. After six years, Sharif was elected uncontested in the general council meeting of the party.