Foreign News
For Reasons Of State India Cannot Continue With IWT
“The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in its present form will not come back again,” sources said, indicating that there are no time limits for keeping the treaty in abeyance.
Unfortunately, the IWT has no provision for automatic termination, nor even an exit clause. But sources said “If we invoked customary international law, then we can say Pakistan is in breach of its commitments.”
The preamble of the IWT calls for “Fixing and delimiting, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship, the rights and obligations of each in relation to the other …”
But in all these years Pakistan has shown neither goodwill nor friendship. Add to that four wars and decades of terrorism first in Punjab and then Kashmir, make it clear there is nothing left to hope for.
Sources hinted India could invoke “Raison d’etat or reasons of state”, meaning that India cannot be compelled to stay in a treaty which is not in its interests.
World Bank’s Maneuvers
Sources were also categorical that India will have nothing to do with the two legal processes Pakistan has initiated against this country: that of the Neutral Expert and the Court of Arbitration.
“IWT provisions allow for a graded system of arbitration. If the Indus Commissioners of India and Pakistan cannot resolve an issue, then secretary-level talks follow and if those fail, the Neutral Expert is brought in followed by the Court of Arbitration.”
But Pakistan after having initiated the Neutral Expert then went directly to the Court of Arbitration. Sources said they were receiving letters virtually on a daily basis from the water resources authorities in Pakistan, providing details of various meetings, “but we ignore them.”
The wonder is how the World Bank, under the auspices of which the IWT was negotiated so many decades ago, allowed two parallel proceedings to go forward.
The speculation is the bank was “under pressure” from some quarters and therefore gave the green light, knowing full well that if the two proceedings resulted in contradictory recommendations, the IWT would be finished.
Pakistan’s Games With IWT
The current mood in Delhi is clear: that the IWT cleared by the late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with generous terms for Pakistan, did not result in good relations with that country. Do note that the IWT gave Pakistan 80% of Indus waters, leaving India a much bigger country with just 20%.
That apart, it’s the manner in which Pakistan has over so many decades, continually placed obstacles in the way of India building dams on the Indus, which is allowed by the IWT. Sources pointed out that even a small 200-Kw project was delayed by nine years with Pakistan raising one objection after another.
“We have informed Pakistan of the 79 projects that were delayed due to their objections. Today, 95% of the Salal Dam is blocked by silt and flushing is being done only now with the treaty abeyance,” the sources said.
Pakistan itself has done little to make full use of its share of Indus waters. It has been able to make use of 104 million acre feet (MAF) of Indus waters but of this only 58 mn MAF reached farmers, the rest was lost during conveyance and to seepage.
It’s dam construction has also been tardy. The Tarbela dam built in 1976 to store nearly 6 mn MAF of water and generate over 4000-MW of power, has not seen proper maintenance. The dam is reportedly operating at only 35% capacity.
Sources said they had taken note of Islamabad’s international campaign to paint India as the villain, denying Pakistan water. But they noted it has not found any takers and even if it did, India is clear that the IWT in its present form cannot continue.
