Pakistan to take up controversial Kishanganga Dam with World Bank

WASHINGTON: A four-member delegation from Pakistan headed by Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali is due to visit Washington next week to apprise the top World Bank officials about Pakistan’s serious concern over the Kishanganga hydro power project that was inaugurated this week.

Talking to media men at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said that the delegation will visit the capital from Monday through Wednesday during which it will hold high-level talks with the World Bank officials on the project.

Pakistan has termed the inauguration of the project without the resolution of the dispute as a serious violation of the Indus Waters Treaty brokered by the World Bank in 1960 that governs the distribution and control of rivers between Pakistan and India.

Ambassador Chaudhry expressed Pakistan’s serious concern over the project that has become operational and said that Islamabad had conveyed its strong opposition to the construction of the project to the World Bank but it had been ignored. India plans to undertake several such project in the disputed territory.

He said that as the World Bank is a guarantor of the treaty, it has to play its role in addressing Pakistan’s concerns over the project that has been constructed on waters flowing into Pakistan and would seriously disrupt supplies vital for the country’s agriculture.

India started the work on the 330 MW Kishanganga in 2009, but Pakistan took the issue to the International Court of Justice and also raised the issue with the World Bank.

Ambassador Chaudhry said that the World Bank needs to intervene in the matter and it was the responsibility of the world body to fulfill its obligation being the guarantor of the international agreement.