By Staff Reporter
KASUR: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), on Friday accused India of violating the Indus Waters Treaty by withholding critical flood data, an act he described as “waging terrorism with water” that has worsened the humanitarian disaster of devastating floods, which have killed dozens and displaced millions in Punjab.
At a press conference in flood-stricken Kasur, Bhutto Zardari condemned India’s failure to share detailed water flow information, a key obligation under the World Bank-brokered treaty.
“India must either abide by the treaty or return Pakistan’s rivers,” he said, accusing New Delhi of flouting international law. He noted that India had provided last-minute notice of water releases without specifying volumes, a move he described as a deliberate violation.
“This time India has forgotten humanity and is not sharing the data about river flows,” Bhutto Zardari said. “We must unite, and we will continue to raise the violation of the IWT by India. We will force India to either follow the IWT or return the rivers allocated to it.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office also echoed these concerns on Friday, with spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan criticising India for providing limited flood-related data through diplomatic channels rather than the established Indus Water Commissioner mechanism. “The information provided this year was not as detailed as in the past,” Khan said, urging New Delhi to “fully comply with all provisions” of the treaty.
The dispute follows heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. In April, after 26 people were killed in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India suspended the treaty. A brief military confrontation in May ended with a US-brokered ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump.
The diplomatic clash coincides with devastating floods in Punjab, Pakistan’s agricultural hub. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) reported high flood levels at Trimmu and Panjnad headworks. Since June 26, floods and related incidents have claimed 884 lives nationwide, including 46 in Punjab, where 1.8 million people have been displaced and 1.3 million acres of farmland inundated, per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). An additional 3.9 million people have been affected in Punjab,the country’s breadbasket.
“Punjab has suffered the most from these floods,” Bhutto Zardari said in Kasur, where he toured a relief camp and received a briefing from local officials. “We did not know the true extent of the disaster. There is a lot of destruction.” He praised Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s efforts but stressed that the crisis demands federal support. “The provincial government alone cannot handle such a large-scale disaster.”
Bhutto Zardari called for Punjab’s floods to be declared an agricultural emergency due to widespread crop losses. “In the phase of providing relief, we will request that the prime minister and provincial government treat this situation as an emergency and provide seeds and fertilizer to affected farmers,” he said, citing a successful program from past floods that distributed free seeds. He also urged loans and electrical components for farmers, expressing confidence in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s support.
The PPP leader demanded that flood victims receive aid through the Benazir Income Support Programme and vowed that his party would ensure their rehabilitation. For reconstruction, he proposed a Sindh model to build two million homes, with funding from the federal government and international institutions. “The reconstruction phase cannot be abandoned,” he said. “It should not be that there is a disaster and the focus shifts as soon as the media leaves.”
As floodwaters surge south, Sindh authorities have evacuated 109,320 people from low-lying areas, including 14,430 in the past 24 hours, said Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon. Nearly 27,801 people have received medical care, and over 346,000 cattle have been relocated, with 754,500 vaccinated. “In view of a possible flood, people from the katcha areas are being evacuated to safe locations,” Memon said, emphasizing close coordination with Punjab.
The NDMA warned that northern Sindh districts, including Sukkur, Ghotki, and Larkana, face immediate risks, while southern areas like Karachi and Hyderabad could see heavy rainfall. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) forecast torrential rains in Sindh and eastern Punjab from September 7 to 9, driven by a low-pressure system moving from India’s Madhya Pradesh toward Rajasthan and Sindh. Urban flooding is expected in low-lying areas, including Karachi and Hyderabad.
Pakistan, among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, faces increasingly severe weather events, from heatwaves to cyclones, which scientists attribute to climate change. The current floods recall the 2022 disaster, when a third of the country was submerged, over 1,700 people died, and economic losses exceeded $35 billion. In Punjab, authorities have established 415 relief camps in severely flooded areas, 466 in other regions, and 398 veterinary camps, with 1.8 million people rescued, according to the PDMA.
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