Pak to raise India ‘violation’ at World Bank
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will raise India’s alleged violation of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 with the World Bank, a media report said on Sunday.
The moves comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the 330MW Kishenganga hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, told media that a four-member delegation led by attorney general Ashtar Ausaf Ali is in Washington to hold talks with the World Bank president, Radio Pakistan reported.
He said that the issue of construction of the Kishanganga Dam will be discussed in the meeting.
Modi inaugurated the Kishanganga hydroelectric power plant on Saturday, amid protests from Pakistan which claims that the project on a river flowing into its territory will disrupt water supplies.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has repeatedly voiced concerns over the project, saying that the inauguration without resolution of the dispute between the two countries is tantamount to violation of the treaty that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers. But India says the project’s design is well within the parameters of the treaty.
The Kishenganga project was started in 2007 but on May 17, 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead with the construction in Kashmir, and upheld India’s right under the bilateral treaty to divert waters from the Kishenganga for power generation in Jammu and Kashmir.