Daily Times

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Tuesday said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had violated the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) after inaugurating the 330MW Kishanganga Power Plant, depriving Azad Kashmir and Pakistan of their precious water sources.

The AJK president made these remarks while talking to the presidents of the bar associations and the press clubs of Azad Kashmir.

The president said that it was an act of breach of faith because the process for the mediatory decision on the Kishanganga project was “paused”, as Pakistan had demanded the constitution of a court of arbitration while India was insistent on a neutral expert. “India has abused this pause to accelerate the completion and inauguration of the Kishanganga hydroelectric project to give a fait-accompli to the World Bank and Pakistan. It has thus scuttled and made a mockery of the arbitration process.”

The president said that India had used the arbitration processes as well as its strained relation with Pakistan as a smokescreen to build dams in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty.

President Masood Khan strongly condemned India’s water aggression against Pakistan and said it was building a cascade of other dams on rivers Indus, Neelum, Chenab and Jhelum.

He urged the president of the World Bank to intervene and avert the possible disaster by persuading India to work within the essential cooperative framework given by the treaty. He also asked the World Bank to inquire from India about its breach of trust in completing the project while the mediation was underway.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and World Bank have started talks in Washington DC over the recently-inaugurated Kishanganga hydropower project by India in IHK

On Sunday, a Pakistan’s delegation arrived in Washington, DC for three-day talks with the World Bank to discuss Pakistan’s concerns about the Kishanganga dam, following the Indian prime minister inauguration of the 330MW Kishanganga hydro-electric project in Indian -held Kashmir on Saturday.

Pakistan asserts that the Kishanganga violates the conditions established under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Aizaz Chaudray had confirmed the arrival of the four-member delegation at a press briefing.

The delegation led by Pakistan’s Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali would reiterate Pakistan’s demand to constitute an international court of arbitration.

Published in Daily Times, May 23^rd 2018.