• AGP Awan says that Islamabad is willing to discuss the water exchange agreement
• The Senate Panel hits the ‘provocative action’ of India
Nueva Delhi: Pakistan will not get water from the rivers on which India has rights, said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, one month after a deadly attack in India, Cookmira led New Delhi to suspend a key treaty to share the river water among the neighbors.
Pakistan Attorney General, in an interview with ReutersHe replied that Islamabad was still willing to discuss the exchange of water among the neighbors, but said that India must comply with the Treaty of decades.
The suspension of the Indo Water Treaty (IWT), negotiated by the World Bank in 1960, was among a series of measures announced by India against Pakistan last month after the Pahalgam attack on April 22 that killed 26 people.
Nueva Delhi had said that the attack was backed by Pakistan, an accusation that Islamabad denied and that neighbors with nuclear weapons were involved in their worst military struggles in almost three decades before accepting a high fire on May 10.
“Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for each terrorist attack … Pakistan’s army will pay it, Pakistan’s economy will pay it,” Modi said in a public event in the northwest state of Rajasthan, which limits with Pakistan.
The Indo Treaty provides water for 80 percent of Pakistan’s farms of three rivers that flow from India, but Pakistan finance minister said this month that his suspension was not going to have “any immediate impact.”
AGP, Mansoor Usman Awan, said Reuters that Pakistan is “willing to speak or address anything.”
He said that India had written to Pakistan in recent weeks, citing population growth and clean energy needs as reasons to modify the treaty. But he said that any discussion would have to participate under the terms of the treaty.
The treaty is legally binding and no part can suspend it unilaterally, Awan said.
“With regard to Pakistan, the treaty is very operational, functional and anything that India does, at its own cost and danger in regard to the construction of any hydroelectric energy project,” he added.
The high fire between countries has remained largely, with Indian Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, saying that there is currently no fire exchange and “there has been a repositioning of forces accordingly.”
“The operation (military) continues because there is a clear message … that if there are acts of the type we saw on April 22, there will be an answer, we will hit the terrorists,” Jaishankar told Dutch News outlet We.
“If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are,” he added.
Senate Committee
Meanwhile, the permanent committee of the Senate on water resources said Thursday that the actions of India that threatened the safety of Pakistan’s water were “illegal.”
The members of the committee warned that Pakistan would not tolerate such provocations.
The meeting, chaired by Senator Shahadat Awan, discussed the IWT in the light of India’s actions.
The Pakistan commissioner for the waters of Indo Mehar Ali Shah informed the panel on the subject.
He said that the treaty was a bilateral agreement between Pakistan and India and that it cannot be held unilaterally.
The committee unanimously condemned the “illegal and unilateral” statement of India to hold the 1960 Treaty in suspense.
“This provocative action would lead to a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to water safety, agricultural productivity and the livelihood of 250 million Pakistani citizens that Pakistan cannot be tolerated,” the committee said in a unanimous statement.
He said that the president of the World Bank had also recently backed that the international agreement could not be held in suspense for a party and continued.
“The committee is the opinion that the treaty is still in force and must be implemented in letter and spirit.”
The members promised to “vigorously defend” Pakistan’s rights under the treaty in all international forums.
This treaty is of vital importance for Pakistan as a lower ripurnary state whose food security and agricultural productivity depend on constant access to these waters, especially given our growing climate vulnerability and erratic monzón cycles, the committee observed.
The Committee also condemned India’s attack against the Neelum Jehlum project, qualifying the action “nothing less than war and water aggression.”
“The Indian weapon of the Indo Waters Treaty constitutes a red line for the people of Pakistan and the continuous interference with the legitimate access of Pakistan water under the treaty could threaten the high fire recently established between the two countries,” said the panel.
The meeting asked the international community to take an immediate notice of the aggression of India.
“We urge all members responsible for the global community to impress India, the importance of honoring their international obligations.”
The panel reaffirmed that Pakistan was committed to a peaceful resolution of all pending problems with India, including the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.
However, Pakistan “will not commit to existential water rights.”
With Reuters contribution
Khaleeq Kiani in Islamabad also contributed to this report
Posted in Dawn, May 23, 2025
