Asghar Ali Shad
IMF has released an eye-opening report on the water scarcity crisis in Pakistan as a result of Indian water aggression against Pakistan. The report states that Pakistan has currently come 3rd in the world among countries with water shortage, which is extremely deadly for the problems of the agricultural economy and the country. It is noteworthy that at the time of its establishment, Pakistan was rich in water resources and the availability of water here was 5,000 cusecs which have now been reduced to a dangerous level of only 1,000 cusecs. According to the IMF report, India is violating international agreements by consuming part of Pakistan’s Chenab River. India seeks to wreak havoc on Pakistan through water aggression. Also, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources has warned that Pakistan is currently facing more water shortages than Ethiopia and if not properly planned, Pakistan could face water drought and famine by 2025. It is no secret India has been longing for the elimination of Pakistan right from its inception. Indeed, Pakistan has been formed to last forever in this world. Therefore, our cunning enemy India, despite the tragedy of the fall of Dhaka, could not succeed in its heinous goal of destroying Pakistan integrity. No doubt, the Pak’s borders are completely secure in the strong hands of Pakistan’s defence forces, but India is leaving no stone unturned in its conspiracies to destabilize the country internally.
Imposing water aggression on Pakistan is also an Indian conspiracy to weaken it, for which it did not allow the sovereign state of Kashmir to join Pakistan according to the formula of the partition of India and dominating much of it made it a controversial issue. India has now perpetuated its forcible domination over its illegally occupied Kashmir by making it part of the Indian State Union, trampling on Security Council resolutions and the Simla Accord with Pakistan. India had gained control of Kashmir for the sake of water aggression on Pakistan so that it could deprive Pakistan of its share of water by controlling the water of rivers flowing into Pakistan through Kashmir and thus turning the fertile soil of Pakistan into a barren desert, pushing it towards famine and causing conditions like Ethiopia. To fulfill its conspiratorial plan, India also violated the Indus Basin Treaty and built small and large dams on the rivers flowing into Pakistan, especially the Chenab River. By controlling the water of these rivers in this way, India sometimes conspires to flood Pakistan and sometimes pushes it towards drought. All these nefarious Indian intentions are part of its ruthless plan to sabotage Pakistan’s security, under which it is engaged in conspiracies to weaken Pakistan internally by spreading terrorism and there are plans to impose a regular war on the LoC by maintaining a continuum of provocations. These Indian aggressive expansionist ambitions have certainly posed grave threats to peace and security of the entire region and the world. That is why the world influential leaders and the representative international bodies should take notice of these evil Indian designs.
One should keep in mind that Two months ago, an American magazine in its comprehensive report named India as the world’s number one terrorist country with solid evidence and then a Brussels-based NGO in the European Union, the DIS-INFO LAB, exposed the activities of the Indian network, which was spreading false and misleading propaganda against Pakistan and showed the real ugly face of India to the world. Now, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its eye-opening report has exposed the Indian conspiracy plan to make Pakistan a victim of water terrorism and has shown the RSS extremist fanatical face of India to the United Nations. This situation, of course, calls on world leaders and representative international bodies to take immediate and practical steps to curb Indian fanaticism and its expansionist activities because it is not far-fetched that these Indian conspiracies will eventually lead to the destruction of the world peace. We have to effectively thwart Indian conspiracies to undermine Pakistan’s security by crushing its water terrorism plans. According to impartial observers, if India has so far had the opportunity to dominate our share of the waters; it is also due to the unwillingness of our superiors and concerned institutions. At first, our officials did not approach the World Bank in time against the illegally constructed Indian dams and then with a weak case, the construction of India’s Baglihar and Kishan Ganga dams was challenged in the World Bank, therefore, there could not be a meaningful hearing for us while we also avoided building the dams we needed inside the country and the Kalabagh Dam was made controversial. Our national security and survival require that all necessary dams, including the Kalabagh Dam, be built and no stone should be left unturned in building small and big dams on the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum rivers which come under its purview under the Indus Water Treaty. As a final word, we as a nation, must be vigilant to fully protect our national interests.
—The writer, a freelance columnist, was Research Fellow in Islamabad Policy Research Institute and Researcher in Centre for South Asian Studies, Punjab University Lahore.