Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Former prime minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif today said that India and Pakistan were ready to resolve the Kashmir issue in 1999.
“The then Indian Prime Minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and I were ready to resolve the Kashmir issue in 1999 but Gen (Pervez) Musharraf did the misadventure in Kargil and then overthrew my government,” Sharif said while addressing a function here today to mark the anniversary of Pakistan’s nuclear tests.
“After we carried out the nuclear tests in 1998,India started taking us on an equal footing. In the following year,the Indian Prime Minister came to Lahore and we issued a joint resolution at the Minar-e-Pakistan,” he told a crowd of cheering supporters.
Sharif said when his government went ahead with the nuclear tests in 1998,half the world was with Pakistan. “I do not say that no one was with India. There were countries that were with India when it carried out the nuclear tests.” .
Pakistan had become stronger after the blasts but the subsequent martial law had weakened it,he said. “Had the people stopped the dictators from toppling the elected government,Pakistan would have been on the road to progress today,” he contended.
