Pakistan Violated 1999 Lahore Agreement with India, Admits Nawaz Sharif

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday admitted that his country “violated” the 1999 Lahore Declaration agreement with India. This agreement was signed by him and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Referring to the Kargil attack by General Pervez Musharraf, he admitted that “It was our fault.”

“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 said at a meeting of his party Pakistan Muslim League (N).

The Lahore Declaration peace agreement between India and Pakistan was signed on February 21, 1999. This agreement called for maintaining peace and security and promoting people-to-people contact.

However, a few months later, Pakistan resorted to intrusion in the Kargil district in Jammu and Kashmir which led to the Kargil War.

A portion of Nawaz Sharif’s speech with this quote was teelcast by the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). It has gone viral on social media.

On Tuesday, Sharif was re-elected “unopposed” as the President of the ruling PML-N party. Six years back, the three-time former Prime Minister Sharif resigned from the post following a Supreme Court ruling in the Panama Papers case.