Nawaz Sharif urges restraint: Former Prime Minister advocates diplomacy to ease India – Pakistan tensions | Here’s why Indian news

As tensions between India and Pakistan escalate after the Pahargham terrorist attacks and New Delhi’s moratorium on the Indian Waters Treaty (IWT), former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. According to Express, Sharif has advised his brother Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to prioritize dialogue and constraints, an increasingly serious dialogue between two nuclear-weapon neighbors.

Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan from London this week, reportedly supporting the government during a period of increased security and diplomatic pressures. Sources told Express Tribune that Nawaz urged Shehbaz to hire all available diplomatic tools to ease the situation and avoid military confrontation.

The former prime minister is said to object to any positive posture and advocates for calm, measuring recent actions of India, including precise strikes on Pakistan’s managed territory and the suspension of the IWT, a move Islamabad called a serious provocation.

Nawaz Sharif’s appeal for peace is consistent with his long-term position on India-Pakistan relations. In 2023’s public remarks, he ousted his opposition from the office in 1999 that conflicted with Cargill. “I wonder why my government was overthrown in 1993 and 1999. Is it because we are against the Kagill War?” he once said, as quoted by News International.

Sharif also admitted that Pakistan violated the 1999 Lahore Declaration, a bilateral peace agreement signed with then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “After Vajpayee Saheb came here and reached an agreement with us… we violated the agreement. It was our fault,” Sharif admitted in a rare candid statement last year.

The Lahore Declaration signed on 21 February 1999 aims to alleviate tensions and promote regional stability. However, within a few months of the signing, Pakistani forces infiltrated Kagir in Jamu and Kashmir, triggering a limited but deadly war.

Sharif’s latest intervention comes as Indian and Pakistani forces remain highly alert. With air strikes, drone invasions and artillery exchanges marking the worst cross-border violence in years, the former prime minister’s diplomatic preface could impact the response in Islamabad in the coming days.