'Objective View Emerging': India On Ex-Pak PM Nawaz Sharif's 'Islamabad Violated Lahore Pact' Remark

Days after former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s admission that Islamabad had violated the Lahore pact, India on Thursday said an “objective view” is emerging in the neighbouring country on the matter.

“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.

Sharif on Tuesday had 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.

Lahore Pact

The Lahore Declaration was signed by then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif 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.

China-Pak Infra Against Our Territorial Integrity: MEA

Randhir Jaiswal further stressed that the entire Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh are integral parts of India. He said that India is not in favour of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as it is against New Delhi’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

In response to a question on reports of increased cooperation between Pakistan and China, Jaiswal said, “On PoK, we are very consistent in our position. We want to tell you, the whole of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the union territories, they are part of India, an integral part of India. They were an integral part of India. They are an integral part of India and they will remain an integral part of India.”

“Our position on CPEC also is well known to you. We are not in favour of it. We are against it. It goes against our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he added.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)

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