E-Paper
Saeed part of Pak water plan
Islamabad is trying to whip up water hysteria and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba founder Hafiz Saeed is an important part of that game plan, feels New Delhi.
Islamabad is trying to whip up water hysteria and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba founder Hafiz Saeed is an important part of that game plan, feels New Delhi.
India maintains that the Indus water treaty of 1960, which has a proper redressal mechanism, has withstood the test of time. But the talk of river waters would has political resonance and could whip up anti-India sentiments , sources said.
The government thinks that India has gone out of its way to adhere to the Indus treaty and Indus water commissioners from both the sides have met over 100 times, the last visit being in February.
Even when the two countries were at war in 1965 and 1971, the treaty was operational, said the sources. Pakistan was raising the temperature over river waters in an attempt to cool down its internal problems.
While Sindh and Balochistan have accused western province of Punjab of denying them Indus water, there were also technical problems relating to lack of effective watershed management in that country, sources said.
The Indus water treaty, signed in 1960, provides India with exclusive use of the waters of three eastern tributaries - Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - and the right to non-consumptive use of the western rivers - Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
Asserting that the country had always adhered to the treaty, the sources said Pakistan's water problems were because of the rivalry among its provinces.
