Current Pakistani leadership is at fault for the lack of progress on key outstanding issues with India, former prime minister and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif said on Friday.
After a meeting with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) delegation at his residence in Raiwind, he said during democratic rule in Pakistan there was progress in talks with India but accepted that some of the decisions that were taken turned out to be counter-productive. “We were at fault to some extent, and so was India. I still do not understand why Pervez Musharraf derailed the peace process through the Kargil episode,” he said.
“Pakistan’s current leadership has not taken issues with India seriously. There were irritants on both sides, however, both the countries want to remove them now,” he said. Reminiscing former Indian premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in 1999 while he was in power, Nawaz said the Lahore Declaration mentioned the Kashmir issue and the need to find a solution through talks. “Vajpayee said that 1999 would be the year for India and Pakistan to solve their problems.
If Musharraf had not derailed the peace process, Kashmir issue might have been solved by now,” he said. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of the Hurriyat delegation, said all Pakistani leaders they had met had assured them support for the Kashmiri movement. “We need a new approach and Kashmiris’ must be made a part of it,” he said.
Pakistani leaders not taking key issues with India seriously, Nawaz tells APHC
