Pakistan’s Foreign Office has categorically rejected the unparliamentary and provocative statement of Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar regarding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), particularly India’s claim of having “held the treaty in abeyance” in April 2025. Pakistan has reiterated that India has neither the legal authority nor the moral justification to unilaterally suspend or abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, is a binding international agreement and cannot be altered outside its agreed framework.Responding to Indian assertions, the Foreign Office spokesperson stated that New Delhi was attempting to deflect attention from its own destabilizing role in the region and its troubling record as a neighbour that promotes coercive policies and regional instability. The Pahalgam incident of April 22, 2025, therefore, must not be viewed merely as an isolated security event. Rather, it reflects a deeper and more calculated strategy, aimed at pressuring Pakistan on multiple fronts, particularly targeting one of its most critical national interests: the water security.
Until April 22, 2025, few could imagine that India would exploit the killing of its own citizens to advance an ill-conceived strategic agenda. The Pahalgam episode appears to have been meticulously planned and politically instrumentalized. Its most significant outcome was the first decision taken by India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on April 23, 2025, announcing the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty. Other measures announced by the CCS were largely symbolic, whereas the real objective was to pave the way for the eventual abrogation of the treaty.In fact, the Indian BJP government has pursued three clearly identifiable strategic goals vis-à-vis Pakistan. First, to destabilize Pakistan internally through sponsored terrorism while simultaneously defaming it internationally. Second, to revoke Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution and illegally annex Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), a goal achieved in August 2019 under the pretext of the Pulwama incident. Third, to undermine and ultimately abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty, an objective for which the Pahalgam incident provided a convenient pretext.
India’s pressure on the Indus Waters Treaty has followed a consistent pattern. In recent years, New Delhi has repeatedly sought to renegotiate the treaty, citing “changed geopolitical and environmental circumstances.” Since January 2023, India has formally written four letters to Pakistan seeking talks under Article XII(3) of the IWT. In 2024, it even suspended meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), declaring that no further sessions would be held unless Pakistan agreed to renegotiation.Pakistan, while demonstrating diplomatic maturity, has expressed willingness to discuss treaty-related issues strictly within the existing framework of the IWT; an approach India finds unacceptable. New Delhi has also approached the World Bank, the treaty’s guarantor, to facilitate modifications. While the World Bank has allowed parallel proceedings for both parties, it has also warned that failure to resolve disputes risks undermining the treaty itself.
Pakistan has consistently raised concerns at the United Nations and the World Bank regarding India’s violations of the treaty, particularly its manipulation of the three western rivers; Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab, whose waters are exclusively allocated to Pakistan. India has constructed dams, storage facilities, and diversion projects in violation of the treaty’s spirit, severely affecting downstream water flows vital for Pakistan’s agriculture and drinking needs.Historically, water has been used by India as a strategic weapon against Pakistan. With exclusive rights over the western rivers, Pakistan redesigned its irrigation system. However, since1980s, India, being the upper riparian and an illegal occupant of Jammu and Kashmir State has increasingly violated the treaty by constructing projects such as Baglihar and Kishanganga, reducing downstream flows and threatening Pakistan’s agrarian economy.
Indian rhetoric has also become increasingly aggressive. In 2016, Prime Minister Modi declared that “blood and water cannot flow together,” followed by his 2017 statement that not a single drop of Indus water should reach Pakistan. These pronouncements clearly indicate a shift towards weaponizing water, in violation of international water law, which mandates equitable and reasonable utilization without causing harm to other riparian states.
Despite clear verdict of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), India is still holding on its illegal stance of suspension of IWT. PCAissued its verdict on June 27, 2025 stating that, that IWT-1960 cannot be unilaterally held in abeyance or suspended. Indian decision of its suspension or keeping it in abeyance is illegal. Pakistan must continue pursuing UN and World Bank to challenge Indian illegal act. Simultaneously, Islamabad must formulate a comprehensive long-term strategy to safeguard its water resources, including conservation of western river waters and effective management of monsoon floods. The Indus Waters Treaty is not merely a technical agreement. It is a lifeline for Pakistan’s economy, sovereignty, and survival, and its defence must remain a national priority at all costs.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
