Water Disputes and Pak-India Relations
Dr. Nasrullah Mirza, Assistant Professor, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and an expert on Indus water issue, presented his well researched thesis in a seminar titled “Water Disputes and Pak-India Relations” held on March 26, 2009. Masud Daher, former secretary government of Pakistan, and Arshad Abbasi consultant water issues, participated as discussants and Akram Zaki was in the chair while Mr. Rahman, DG IPS, introduced the subject.
Activity: Public SeminarSpeaker: Dr. Nasrullah Mirza, Assistant Professor, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.Discussants: Masud Daher, former secretary government of Pakistan; Arshad Abbasi consultant water issues.Chair: Akram Zaki, former Secretary General of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Nasrullah Mirza, Assistant Professor, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and an expert on Indus water issue, presented his well researched thesis in a seminar titled “Water Disputes and Pak-India Relations” held on March 26, 2009. Masud Daher, former secretary government of Pakistan, and Arshad Abbasi consultant water issues, participated as discussants and Akram Zaki was in the chair while Mr. Rahman, DG IPS, introduced the subject.
In his edifying presentation, Dr. Nasrullah Mirza said that the roots of the conflict over water were traced back to Redcliff Award when control of the strategically important water heads and access to Kashmir were rendered to India in sheer negligence of the division formula.
Kashmir was not merely an ideological, emotional or political issue for Pakistan; it is undoubtedly ‘jugular vein of Pakistan’ in every sense of the world, he said adding that “The cause of military adventurism over Kashmir is rooted in its geo-strategic location and control of Indus rivers system and the claims of absolute territorial sovereignty over Kashmir is the real and major strategic issue.”
Citing various sources and explaining the genesis of water issues, Indus Water Basin Treaty was signed in 1960 after lengthy interventions of World Bank. “Pakistan had accepted the treaty at the stake of its very survival and assurances from India that it will not interfere with other rivers; India never honored its promises,” he argued.
Analyzing the formula of fulfilling the deficiency of the eastern rivers through canals drawn from the western rivers, he said that this was an unnatural arrangement and had caused severe problems of salinity and water logging. He suggested that if peace was desired in the area then water and Kashmir will have to be taken as inextricably inter linked issues and resolved as such.
Concluding the seminar, former Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, Akram Zaki said that Indian behavior had been in violation of the international norms, arguing India utilized its share of the eastern rivers but after eighties it started ‘tempering with Pakistani rivers.’
“Stopping water by India is the policy of desertification of Pakistan creating invisible aggression and very serious consequences for the agriculture of the country. It must be treated as invisible aggression and we must take this battle to the international issues with the Security Council as a case of aggression against Pakistan”, he maintained. He emphasized that Pakistan should assert its right over the eastern rivers and “strict implementation of the treaty” should be emphasized.
“Water is as much a nuclear flashpoint as is Kashmir. If the world is interested in peace in this region, it must act urgently to help both the countries restart negotiations,” he concluded.
