Objective view emerging in Pak: India on Nawaz Sharif's comments that Islamabad violated Lahore pact

Nawaz Sharif

Days after former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif admitted that Islamabad had violated the Lahore pact, India on Thursday said an objective view is emerging on the issue in the neighbouring country.

Sharif on Tuesday said Islamabad had "violated" an agreement with India signed by him and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999, in an apparent reference to the Kargil misadventure by General Pervez Musharraf.

"You are aware of our position on the issue. I need not have to reiterate that. We note that there is an objective view emerging in Pakistan as well on this matter," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

He was replying to a question on the matter at his weekly media briefing.

After a historic summit in Lahore, then Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Sharif signed the Lahore Declaration on February 21, 1999.

The agreement that talked about a vision of peace and stability between the two neighbouring countries signalled a breakthrough. However, a few months later, Pakistani intrusion in Jammu and Kashmir's Kargil district led to the Kargil conflict.

"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," Sharif told a meeting of the PML-N general council that elected him the president of the ruling party in Pakistan.