Nawaz commends India for constituting Kargil commission, seeks similar probe in Pak

Lahore, August 14(ANI): Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has commended India for constituting a commission on the Kargil issue, and deplored that some elements were still opposing a similar commission in Pakistan.

Addressing a seminar, Nawaz said he hoped that "a day will come here as well when a commission will probe the war."

Referring to his peace efforts as the prime minister of Pakistan, he alleged that former President Pervez Musharraf has sabotaged the entire process.

He said he had invited India's ex-premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore to write a new chapter of bilateral relations between the two countries, but Musharraf had different thoughts.

He claimed that he found Vajpayee a courageous person who was seriously working to resolve bilateral issues between India and Pakistan. Nevertheless, Nawaz admitted that he was initially a bit reluctant on it, the Dawn reports.

He said Vajpayee had complained that Pakistan, on one side, was negotiating peace with India, and on the other, it had stabbed it in the back through the Kargil expedition.

Nawaz admitted that he would have the same feelings, had he been in place of Vajpayee, adding that the year 1999 could have been declared as the year of the Kashmir issue resolution, if the peace initiative were allowed to continue.

Unfortunately, during the past 60 years, both countries were blaming each other for any sad incident in their countries, he rued, adding, "We should change this culture of blaming each other."

Nawaz also said he was thankful to India, which made Pakistan a nuclear state. "If India had not conducted nuclear tests, Pakistan would never have responded to it in the same coin," he said, adding the tests paved the way for an increasing desire for peace and harmony between the two nations and eventually resulted into the Lahore Declaration. (ANI)