Pakistan Urges India to Reconsider Indus Waters Treaty Suspension Amid Rising Tensions
- Pakistan urged India to reconsider the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
- The appeal was made via a letter from Pakistan's water secretary to India.
- India suspended the treaty after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
Following growing tensions between India and Pakistan, Islamabad has officially written to New Delhi seeking a reversal of the latter's recent move to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, citing the heavy reliance of millions on the joint water resources. The Times of India reported that the appeal was issued in the form of a letter by Syed Ali Murtaza, Pakistan's Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, to his Indian counterpart, Debashree Mukherjee.
This diplomatic initiative comes after a temporary ceasefire agreement between the two nations following a four-day war. The escalation started with the terrorist attacks on April 22 in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, that took 26 lives, the majority of whom were tourists. As a retaliation, India carried out operations against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The battle raged before both countries agreed on a ceasefire.
On April 23, India had announced a chain of retaliatory actions, which included suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, shutting down the Attari border's integrated check post, and a decrease in diplomatic presence by reducing Pakistani personnel at high commissions in India.
Pakistan's letter, sent allegedly during India's 'Operation Sindoor', termed India's suspension of the treaty a 'unilateral and illegal' move. It also claimed that the move was tantamount to attacking the Pakistani people and economy. Islamabad appealed to India to rethink, citing the humanitarian and economic impacts of interrupting water supplies regulated by the treaty.
India, however, stands its ground. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday told that the ceasefire does not change India's punitive measures. He reaffirmed that the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty would continue to be in effect 'until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures support for cross-border terrorism'.
A top Indian official informed ToI, "The treaty was dealt with in an atmosphere of goodwill and good neighbourliness. That is why we continued with it even after its defective, unequal framework. But Pakistan's failure to rein in terror has vitiated the very foundation of the treaty".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke on the matter in his first address after Operation Sindoor, stating that 'water and blood can never flow together', even more solidifying India's toughened stance on the treaty amidst ongoing security issues.
The Indus Waters Treaty, facilitated by the World Bank in 1960, provides a cooperative water-sharing arrangement for the two nuclear-armed neighbours. It assigns the three eastern rivers of Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi to India, and the three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab to Pakistan, with regulations on information exchange and cooperation.
India, in its formal notice to Pakistan, invoked persistent cross-border terrorism aimed against Jammu and Kashmir as a violation of the terms of the treaty and reason for its suspension.
At the same time, World Bank President Ajay Banga explained the organization's limited involvement in the case. "There is a lot of hype in the media about how the World Bank will come in and solve the problem, but it's all baloney. Our role is simply as a facilitator", Banga said, effectively excluding any direct action.
With geopolitical tensions running high and diplomatic channels strained, the future of the historic water-sharing treaty remains in doubt.
