Pak responds to Delhi plan to modify Indus Water Treaty. MEA says examining it

Indus Water Treaty: The Indian side is now examining Pakistan’s letter and a response will be prepared in consultation with all stakeholders, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Baghchi said

NEW DELHI: India said on Thursday it is examining Pakistan’s response to its notice regarding New Delhi’s intention to modify the Indus Waters Treaty, which was served because of Islamabad’s “intransigence” in handling disputes related to cross-border rivers.

In this Aug. 13, 2010 file photo, personnel of Border Road Organization and local volunteers work to stop the overflowing water of Indus river which was damaging a highway near Leh. India has sent a notice to Pakistan for modification of the Indus Waters Treaty of September 1960 following Islamabad's 'intransigence' on its implementation. (PTI File Photo)

The “notification for modification” of the 62-year-old Indus Water Treaty was conveyed by the Indian side in January through the Commissioners for Indus Waters of the two sides. The Pakistani side conveyed its response through official channels on April 3.

“In response to the notice we gave to Pakistan on January 25 about modification of the Indus Waters Treaty, under the provisions of Article 12, Pakistan’s foreign ministry forwarded a letter to us on April 3 with the response of their Commissioner for Indus Waters to our Commissioner of Indus Waters,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a media briefing, speaking in Hindi.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday that it has responded to India’s letter on the Indus Waters Treaty. “Pakistan remains committed to the implementation of the treaty in good faith and to ensure its water security,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters.

In January, the Indian side said that it had been forced to issue the notice of modification because of “Pakistan’s intransigence on the treaty”. It had also said that India has always been a “steadfast supporter and a responsible partner” in implementing the Indus Waters Treaty, which was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations between India and Pakistan and was brokered by the World Bank, which too is a signatory.

The notice opened up the prospect of making changes to the treaty for the first time since it was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960, by then Pakistan president Mohammad Ayub Khan, then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and WAB Illif of the World Bank.

While explaining India’s move, people familiar with the matter had linked it to Pakistan’s actions since 2015 in handling disputes related to Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir. The move also came two days before Court of Arbitration in The Hague took up a case related to these projects on January 27.

According to a report in Pakistan’s The News newspaper, the Pakistani side has said in its response that it is ready to listen to India’s concerns about the treaty at the Permanent Commission of Indus Waters. Citing sources in Pakistan’s attorney general’s office, the report said Pakistan, as a lower riparian country, could not flout the treaty’s provisions or commit any material breach.

Any decision about talks on changing the treaty will be made after Pakistan heard India’s concerns, the report said.