New Delhi: After former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated that the Kargil war was a mistake by Islamabad, India said on Thursday that it noted an "objective view emerging" across the border.

On Tuesday, Nawaz Sharif returned to his former position as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after a gap of six year. During the ceremony to mark his ascension, Sharif took potshots in his speech against “those who played a role in his disqualification in the Panama Papers case”, reported the Dawn newspaper.

He had given up the post of party president after the Pakistan Supreme Court disqualified him from office in 2017 for not declaring receiving 10,000 dirhams from a UAE-based company in his election nomination papers.

In his speech, Sharif spoke about the role of the judiciary and reiterated his claim that former ISI chief Zaheerul Islam had conveyed to him through a property tycoon that he should resign as prime minister.

Since the ceremony was held on May 28, Sharif then referred to Pakistan’s five nuclear tests in 1998, which was a retaliation for India’s nuclear tests conducted over two weeks earlier.

He noted that then US President Bill Clinton had offered $5 billion to Pakistan to not conduct the nuclear tests, “but I refused”.

Sharif then reiterated his claim that Pakistan had betrayed then Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s trust, who had travelled to Lahore by bus in a gesture of friendship.

“Once Pakistan conducted five nuclear tests in reply to India’s [then Indian premier] Atal Bihari Vajpayee sahib came here and made a [peace] agreement with us ... but we violated it and it was our fault,” Sharif told the PML-N’s general council on Tuesday.

He was referring to the signing of the Lahore Declaration on Sharif and Vajpayee on February 21, 1999. Two months later, the Kargil war broke out after Indian forces found that Pakistani army had infiltrated beyond the Line of Control. Sharif had always stated that he had had not been in loop over Pakistan army’s plans over the intrusion.

Two days later, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal indicated that India had taken positive note of Sharif’s remarks.

“You are aware of our position on the issue. We note that there is an objective view emerging in Pakistan as well,” he said.

While the MEA spokesperson termed it as an “emerging view”, this was not the first time that Sharif had publicly said that Vajpayee had been betrayed by Pakistani establishment after his hand of friendship.

At a rally in February 2016 during his third term as Prime minister, Sharif said, “Vajpayee told me that he was stabbed in the back because of Pakistan's misadventure in Kargil, especially during the process of Lahore Declaration. Vajpayee was right. I would have said the same thing - he was certainly backstabbed (in Kargil)”.

Then MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup had even taken cognisance of Sharif’s words. “Nawaz Sharif has said something which was known to all. Everybody knew about it. He has only confirmed a truth which we all aware of,” he responded at a media briefing on February 18, 2016.

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