Pakistan refuses settlement with India outside IWT ambit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has flatly refused to find a settlement with India on water disputes outside the ambit of Indus Water Treaty (IWT), arguing that Islamabad would reject any other option floated from any side to resolve the lingering controversy at bilateral levels.

“Currently, the WB’s experts’ team is visiting India from January 4 to 6, 2017 and they may visit Pakistan afterwards but we are waiting whether India has taken any lenient stance or not,” official sources confirmed to The News here on Friday.

No track-II policy can break the ice between the two countries, Pakistan has simply conveyed to the World Bank and the Indian side during the ongoing background discussions aiming to break the deadlock on water issues between the nuclear rivals of South Asia.

Pakistan, the top official sources said, had taken a principled stand that Islamabad would not accept any proposal outside the ambit of the IWT. The World Bank had announced a pause in the separate processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty to allow the two countries to consider alternative ways to resolve their disagreements.

This announcement resulted in halting the process of appointing a neutral expert, as requested by India, and the Chairman of the Court of Arbitration, as requested by Pakistan, to resolve issues regarding two hydroelectric power plants under construction by India along the Indus River system.

The WB states that both processes initiated by the respective countries were advancing at the same time, creating a risk of contradictory outcomes that could potentially endanger the Treaty. The pause was announced by Kim in letters to the finance ministers of India and Pakistan and emphasised that the Bank was acting to safeguard the treaty.

Pausing the process for now, the Bank would hold off from appointing the chairman for the Court of Arbitration or the neutral expert – appointments that had been expected on December 12 as earlier communicated by the Bank.

Pakistan’s Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar sent back letter to the WB’s President Jim Yong Kim after the Bank’s decision to pause the process of finding out solution to water disputes between Pakistan and India. The finance minister had taken the stance that the matter of appointment of a chairman of the Court of Arbitration was inordinately delayed, while urging the World Bank to execute its obligations under the Indus Waters Treaty as the “chosen appointing authority” and “appoint the chairman of the Court of the Arbitration Indus Water Treaty, expeditiously”.

The finance minister noted that the “pause” proposed by the President World Bank Group would merely prevent Pakistan from approaching a competent forum and having its grievances addressed. The letter from the finance minister noted that the Indus Water Treaty 1960 did not provide for a situation wherein a party could “pause” performance of its obligations under the Treaty.

The current processes under the treaty concern the Kishenganga (330 megawatts) and Ratle (850 megawatts) hydroelectric power plants. The power plants are being built by India on, respectively, the Kishenganga and Chenab Rivers. Neither of the two plants is being financed by the World Bank Group.