Srinagar: Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif has said that Islamabad “violated” the agreement signed between him and his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 which was followed by Kargil war.
Sharif according to a news report carried by Times of India 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”.
Following a historic summit held in New Delhi on February 21, 1999, Sharif and Vajpayee signed the Lahore Declaration.
A few months after the agreement, which described a vision of peace and stability between the two nations, Pakistani intrusion in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir resulted in 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 Pakistan marked 26th year of its first nuclear tests.
The 74-year-old further said how Saqib Nisar, Pakistan’s then-Chief Justice, had falsely accused him of being the prime minister in 2017 and consequently dismissed him from office. He said that while the allegations against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder leader Imran Khan were genuine, all the ones against him were untrue.
Talking about role of former ISI chief General Zahir-ul-Islam in bringing down his government in 2017, Sharif said, “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 further revealed that Islam had asked him to resign saying that “when I refused, he threatened to make an example of me”.
Three-time PM Nawaz Sharif was be re-elected as the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party on Tuesday, six years after losing the post following a Supreme Court ruling in the Panama Papers case.
