Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah on Sunday stated India’s declare of inserting the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in “abeyance” has no authorized foundation and that the treaty stays absolutely in power underneath worldwide regulation.
In April 2025, India held the IWT in abeyance following the assault on vacationers in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 — an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad with out proof. Pakistan termed any try and droop its water share “act of conflict”. In June, the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration held that India can not unilaterally maintain the treaty in abeyance.
Talking on Geo Informationprogram ‘Jirga’, Shah talked concerning the legality of India holding the IWT in abeyance and stated: “So far as holding the treaty in abeyance is worried, the phrase ‘abeyance’ is just not acknowledged underneath worldwide treaty regulation. It’s a coined time period, as a result of we consider India understands that it can not droop, breach or terminate the treaty.”
Nonetheless, he cautioned that India’s continued non-cooperation inside the rules-based framework, successfully sidestepping its obligations on self-created grounds, was “alarming”, prompting Pakistan to pursue a proper and punctiliously calibrated authorized and diplomatic response.
“To handle this, Pakistan is using efforts rigorously, and no matter steps are being taken are formal in nature,” he stated.
He stated the treaty was rigorously negotiated to face up to political tensions and disputes, stressing that its dispute-resolution mechanism was designed to stop unilateral actions.
About Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s threats of stopping the move of Pakistan’s share of water, Shah asserted: “There isn’t any room for stopping or partially stopping Pakistan’s water. This additionally goes in opposition to ethical requirements.
“Technically, if one occasion is cussed on diverting the western rivers flowing into Pakistan, to cut back it to cease it, so naturally, there have been inter-basin switch examples on this planet,” he noticed.
“After we gave the three japanese rivers to India, we’ve got been dealing with penalties for the reason that starting of the treaty. Sutlej is all the time dry, barring the flooding season. Ravi is dry,” the water commissioner stated.
Shah reiterated that any transfer by India to cut back water flows to Pakistan “could be thought-about an act of conflict”.
“There isn’t any mounted quantity of water allotted to Pakistan,” he stated, including that the waters ought to be accessible to Pakistan based mostly on the “pure sample of the western rivers”.
“Thus far, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus are receiving water in a pure sample. However since April 24, 2025, India has created three such episodes, which we picked up — twice in Could and as soon as in December — once they elevated the move after which decreased it for a number of days,” Shah identified.
Talking concerning the procedures said underneath the “well-thought-out” pact, Shah stated one clause said that within the face of battle, Pakistan and India will peacefully remedy the water matter. “In any other case, they are going to hand it to a impartial occasion,” he added.
The official famous, “The twelfth and final article of this treaty has 4 provisions. Within the final paragraph, it says that with the passage of time, some adjustments could be made to the pact, however each events should mutually agree; in any other case, the pact will stay absolutely enforced.”
“And it clearly says that nobody occasion can unilaterally change it,” the water commissioner burdened.
Requested whether or not the IWT favored India, Shah replied that the three japanese rivers — Beas, Ravi and Sutlej — have a “geographic benefit”, not like the western rivers.
Recalling the historical past of water disputes between the 2 neighbors, Shah stated India halted the rivers’ move to Pakistan on March 31, 1948, which Pakistan protested on a bilateral stage and took the problem to the United Nations.
After the IWT was agreed upon in 1960, India first violated the pact when it was constructing the Salal Dam, with which Pakistan had points, and so they had been subsequently resolved by the treaty.
“The pact doesn’t have a guarantor as such, however it has its personal mechanism,” the official noticed.
The water commissioner stated the fundamental characteristic of the IWT was that the western rivers’ pure move should not be altered.
“India was allowed to make use of the western rivers for hydroelectric energy era solely according to the pact tips. If there’s a violation, then any occasion can take the matter to a 3rd discussion board,” Shah stated.
Offering an instance of such an occasion, Shah recalled that Pakistan determined to take the matter to a 3rd discussion board when India constructed the Baglihar Dam on the western rivers, “violating 5 of the circumstances”.
The official famous there have been two third-party boards the place conflicts could possibly be taken — “one is a impartial discussion board, and the opposite is the Courtroom of Arbitration discussion board”. The process for it, Shah added, was that the water commissioners should inform one another and recommend whether or not the matter ought to go to a impartial occasion or a court docket.
“So if one occasion doesn’t comply with go to the court docket, as an illustration, then the matter should go to a impartial occasion, who will determine whether or not the matter falls inside their experience,” he defined, including that internationally acknowledged specialists are a part of the crew when the problem is taken to a impartial discussion board.
“When the Baglihar Dam resolution was taken, it was not in favor of Pakistan. The extent of that call was solely confined to the Baglihar Dam and it didn’t apply to any future growth plans,” Shah stated.
The water commissioner highlighted that though Pakistan didn’t agree with the choice, it was binding underneath the IWT.
“So to be able to cease India from taking future selections based mostly on the choice of the Baglihar Dam, Pakistan filed a case on the Courtroom of Arbitration for a normal interpretation.”
Detailing extra water conflicts, Shah stated that after Baglihar, Pakistan raised the problem about India setting up the 850 megawatt Ratle Hydroelectric Plant on the Chenab river bilaterally first, and in addition went to a 3rd discussion board.
The water commissioner then talked about that Pakistan had additionally raised objections on the Kiru and Kwar hydroelectric tasks in India, whose designs New Delhi shared with Islamabad previous to the April 2025 developments.
