‘Our fault’: Ex-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif admits Pak backstabbed India by violating the 1999 Lahore Agreement during Kargil War
29 May 2024 12:15:44
Islamabad, May 29: In a startling admission, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted on Tuesday that Islamabad ‘violated’ an agreement with India in 1999. This came during a meeting of the PML-N general council, where he assumed the presidency of the ruling party, six years after his disqualification by the country’s Supreme Court.
Sharif referred to the signing of the Lahore Declaration and its breach by Islamabad in Kargil. “On May 28, 1998, Pakistan carried out five nuclear tests. After that Vajpayee Saheb (then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari) came here and made an agreement with us. But we violated that agreement…it was our fault,” said Sharif.
The agreement mentioned by Sharif was the “Lahore Declaration,” which he and then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed on February 21, 1999, with the goal of fostering peace and stability between India and Pakistan. However, shortly after the signing, Pakistani troops infiltrated the Kargil district in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the Kargil War.
“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.
Sharif asserted that former ISI chief Gen Zahirul Islam had a hand in orchestrating the downfall of his government in 2017 to facilitate Imran Khan’s rise to power. "I ask Imran not to blame us (of being patronised by the army) and tell whether Gen Islam had talked about bringing the PTI into power," Sharif said and added Khan would sit at the feet of the military establishment.
Lahore Declaration
The Lahore Declaration was a comprehensive framework issued to address long-standing issues between India and Pakistan. The declaration’s primary objectives included promoting peace and stability.
The text of the Lahore Declaration underscored these aspirations, “The Prime Ministers of the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, sharing a vision of peace and stability between their countries, and of progress and prosperity for their peoples, convinced that durable peace and development of harmonious relations and friendly cooperation will serve the vital interests of the peoples of the two countries.”
However, just months after the agreement, the Kargil War erupted. In May 1999, Pakistani forces, led by General Pervez Musharraf, infiltrated the Kargil district in Jammu and Kashmir. This aggressive move was a clear violation of the Lahore Declaration, which had called for peaceful resolution of disputes and avoidance of conflict.
Sharif’s recent admission brings a rare acknowledgement of responsibility from a Pakistani leader regarding the Kargil misadventure. The Kargil conflict resulted in significant military casualties and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, both of which were nuclear-armed by that time.