India has said that the IWT will remain in abeyance until Islamabad “credibly and irrevocably” ends its support for cross-border terrorism.
Photo : PTI
Pakistan wrote to India as many as four times urging it to reconsider its decision to suspend the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which has now left Pakistan battling for water, reported news agency IANS, citing sources. Syed Ali Murtaza, Secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources, sent four letters to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, which has since then forwarded them to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Sources said Murtaza has urged India to revoke the suspension and resume the agreement. The suspension has led to a water shortage in Pakistan, with many dams left without water.
India had suspended the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan on April 23, a day after terrorists shot dead 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. It was one of the punitive measures India took against Pakistan; others being suspending all visa services, closing Attari border and asking Pakistan nationals to leave.
India said that theIWT will remain in abeyanceuntil Islamabad “credibly and irrevocably” ends its support for cross-border terrorism. This is the first time New Delhi has hit pause on the World Bank-brokered agreement.
After India launched Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi clearly said that “water and blood cannot flow together” and “terror and talks cannot happen at the same time”, underlining the government’s uncompromising position.
Exposed around the globe, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been expressing Islamabad’s willingness to engage in peace talks with India to resolve ongoing disputes.
Notably, Pakistani politicians had issued repeated warnings calling the IWT suspension an “act of war”. Many leaders pleaded to the Shehbaz government to “defuse” the “water bomb” that is hanging over the country.
“We would die of hunger if we don’t resolve the water crisis now. The Indus Basin is our lifeline as three-fourths of our water comes from outside the country, nine out of 10 people depend on the Indus water basin for their living, as much as 90 per cent of our crops rely on this water and all our power projects and dams are built on it. This is like a water bomb hanging over us and we must defuse it,” Pakistan Senator Syed Ali Zafar was heard saying during a Senate Session last month.