India using water as instrument of war: Sherry

PPP LEADER TERMS INDIA’S THREATS A ‘DANGEROUS ESCALATORY TREND’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Vice-President Sherry Rehman, while commenting on India’s threat to abrogate the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), on Tuesday said that the use of water as a weapon of war by India was both “dangerous” and “irresponsible”. In a statement issued here, Sherry said that amidst the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, India had brought up the possibility of abrogating the water treaty to pressure Pakistan diplomatically. She termed India’s threats a “dangerous escalatory trend”. The PPP leader recalled that under the IWT, brokered by the World Bank and signed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ayub Khan on September 19, 1960, the water from six rivers, Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, were to be shared between Pakistan and India. “Walking away from the Indus Water Treaty, which has withstood two major conflicts, will be catastrophic for both countries,” Sherry said, adding, “If India decides to divert water from Pakistan, it could result in flooding and inflict damages not only to Pakistan but to China as well.” “Revoking the treaty signals an act of war,” said Sherry as she questioned, “Is that the message that India wants to send to the world or to its other water-sharing neighbours, such as, Nepal, Bangladesh or upper riparians such as China on the waters of the Brahmaputra.” The PPP leader warned that “a unilateral withdrawal will anyway bring the World Bank into dispute and fuel more anxiety and conflict on the ground in the entire basin which includes Indian territory”. “Threatening to scrap the Treaty is not a diplomatic option,” she declared. The senator clarified that India had no legal competence under the treaty to revoke it unilaterally let alone bring changes to it. “Both Pakistan and India would have to agree in writing and to ratify termination in writing,” she added. “The treaty is of indefinite duration and is neither time-constrained nor event-specific,” she said.