Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif admitted on Tuesday that Pakistan had "violated" the 1999 Lahore Declaration with India, indirectly referring to the Kargil conflict initiated by General Pervez Musharraf. Speaking at a Pakistan Muslim League (N) meeting, Sharif stated, "It was our fault."
Sharif recalled that after Pakistan conducted five nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan and signed the Lahore Declaration. The declaration aimed to promote peace, security, and people-to-people contact between the two nations. However, Sharif admitted that Pakistan violated this agreement, leading to the Kargil War a few months later when Pakistani forces secretly infiltrated the Kargil district in Ladakh. India discovered the infiltration, leading to a full-scale war that India won while Sharif was still Prime Minister.
A portion of Sharif's speech, broadcast by Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV), has gained significant attention on social media.
On the 26th anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear test, Sharif mentioned that President Bill Clinton had offered Pakistan USD 5 billion to prevent it from conducting the tests, which he refused. He criticized former Prime Minister Imran Khan, suggesting that Khan would have accepted Clinton's offer had he been in Sharif's position.
Sharif also claimed that his removal from office in 2017 was due to a false case orchestrated by Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to bring Imran Khan to power. He accused former ISI chief Gen Zahirul Islam of attempting to force his resignation in 2014, threatening to make an example of him when he refused.
On the same day, Sharif was re-elected unopposed as the President of the ruling PML-N party, six years after being forced to quit the post following a Supreme Court ruling in the Panama Papers case.
