An objective view is emerging: MEA after Nawaz Sharif says Pakistan violated Lahore pact

Responding to questions on Sharif’s comment, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday: “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.”

The fact that South Block did not make a sharp comeback is seen as an important signal. Also, the response comes just days before the Lok Sabha election results on June 4.

Vajpayee and Sharif had signed the Lahore Declaration on February 21, 1999, after a historic summit in Lahore. The agreement, which talked about a vision of peace and stability between the two countries, signalled a breakthrough. However, a few months later, Pakistani intrusion in Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir led to the Kargil conflict.

This is the second time in the last two months that the Sharifs have made an outreach towards Delhi. The change of government in Pakistan, and the Sharif family’s return to power in March this year after a bitterly-contested election, had raised hopes of an engagement between India and Pakistan.

Earlier, on April 18, in what was seen as the first major outreach by the Pakistan establishment led by the Sharifs, Pakistan’s Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz quoted her father, three-time PM Nawaz Sharif, as saying: “don’t fight wars with neighbours… open the doors of friendship”.

Maryam, who is seen as the heir apparent, had made a strong pitch for improvement of ties while speaking to Indian Sikh pilgrims at Kartarpur Sahib. In an almost 10-minute speech in Punjabi and Urdu, she had invoked her family’s roots in a village in India, bonds between people of the two Punjabs across the border, and appointment of the first Sikh minister in Pakistan. She also talked about plans to develop the area around Kartarpur Sahib for pilgrims, and called for investments from Sikhs around the world.

New Delhi had viewed her speech as a positive gesture — a broader signal to India, from the daughter of Sharif, who is the patriarch of the current political establishment.

In May 2014, Modi had invited Sharif, who was then the Pakistan Prime Minister, for his swearing-in ceremony. But the terror attacks in Pathankot and Uri derailed the engagement process. The ties between the two countries have nosedived, with both sides not posting High Commissioners in each other’s capitals since 2019, after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the two sides have more or less adhered to the ceasefire along the Line of Control since February 2021.