As tensions between India and Pakistan escalate following the Pahalgam terror assault and New Delhi’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has known as for a diplomatic decision to the disaster. In keeping with The Specific Tribune, Sharif has suggested his brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to prioritise dialogue and restraint amid the rising standoff between the 2 nuclear-armed neighbours.
Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from London this week, reportedly to help the federal government throughout a interval of heightened safety and diplomatic strain. Sources advised The Specific Tribune that after being briefed on the Nationwide Safety Committee’s (NSC) current deliberations, Nawaz urged Shehbaz to make use of all out there diplomatic instruments to ease the scenario and keep away from a army confrontation.
The previous premier is alleged to have opposed any aggressive posture and advocated for a peaceful, measured method to India’s current actions, which embody precision strikes in Pakistan-administered territory and the suspension of the IWT—a transfer that Islamabad has termed a severe provocation.
Nawaz Sharif’s name for peace is constant together with his long-standing stance on India-Pakistan relations. In public remarks made in 2023, he mirrored on his ousting from workplace in 1999, linking it to his opposition to the Kargil battle. “I wish to know why my governments have been overthrown in 1993 and 1999. Was it as a result of we opposed the Kargil battle?” he had mentioned, as quoted by The Information Worldwide.
Sharif additionally acknowledged that Pakistan had violated the 1999 Lahore Declaration, a bilateral peace settlement signed with then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “After Vajpayee Saheb got here right here and made an settlement with us… we violated that settlement. It was our fault,” Sharif admitted in a uncommon candid assertion final yr.
The Lahore Declaration, signed on February 21, 1999, was aimed toward de-escalating tensions and selling regional stability. Nevertheless, inside months of its signing, Pakistani troops infiltrated Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir, triggering a restricted however lethal battle.
Sharif’s newest intervention comes at a time when Indian and Pakistani forces stay on excessive alert. With airstrikes, drone incursions, and artillery exchanges marking the worst cross-border violence in years, the previous prime minister’s diplomatic overture might affect Islamabad’s response within the days forward.