By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan accused India on Thursday of violating a decades-old water-sharing agreement by unilaterally putting the Indus Waters Treaty on hold, warning that the decision endangers the livelihoods of millions who depend on the rivers for their crops and could further inflame tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The dispute spilt into a high-level U.N. meeting held just days before World Water Day on March 22, turning what had long been one of the few stable points in the India-Pakistan relationship into a fresh source of confrontation.
Pakistan’s objections came after its minister of climate change, Dr. Musadik Malik, delivered a video message to the gathering. He described India’s move to place the treaty “in abeyance” as a direct challenge to the legal foundations that have governed water flows between the countries since 1960. The treaty, he said, had survived wars and crises precisely because both sides had honoured its terms. India’s ambassador to the United Nations, Harish Parvathaneni, responded by telling the assembly that New Delhi would keep the treaty suspended until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably ends its support for all forms of terrorism.” Pakistan has long dismissed that charge as unfounded.
Parvathaneni argued that the original agreement, now 65 years old, no longer reflected current realities. Advances in dam construction, the growing push for clean energy, shifting climate conditions and population growth all pointed to the need for changes, he said. India had tried repeatedly to open talks with Pakistan on those issues, he added, but every attempt had been rejected.
In a formal right of reply, Pakistan’s second secretary, Aleena Majeed, rejected the terrorism accusations outright and accused India of using them to shift attention from its own actions. “India’s attempts to deflect attention through unfounded allegations of terrorism cannot conceal its record of sponsorship of terrorism across its borders, perpetration of state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, global state-backed assassination campaign, including in North America, and state patronage of violence against its minorities,” Majeed said.
She went further, charging that India had backed terrorist groups responsible for attacks inside Pakistan. The suspension of the treaty, she said, marked a serious break from the legal and historical understanding that had been held for more than six decades. A ruling by the Court of Arbitration in 2025 had already made clear that the treaty remained fully in force and legally binding, she noted. “We reiterate our firm and unequivocal rejection of all attempts to weaponise water and to use it for political gains,” Majeed added. “Pakistan remains firmly committed to international law and to the faithful performance of treaty obligations.”
Pakistan’s mission to the United Nations noted that Islamabad has repeatedly proposed direct talks with India on water issues and other disputes.
Malik, speaking before the diplomatic back-and-forth, tied the water dispute directly to human suffering and economic survival. “For us, water is nature. Water is humanity. Water is our civilisation. For us, water is agriculture,” he said. He pointed out that farming contributes 25 to 30 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product and employs nearly half the country’s workforce.
The minister described the suspension not just as a legal violation but as a humanitarian threat. He recalled the devastating floods of recent years that killed nearly 6,000 people, displaced 40 million and left millions of children without schools. “When we fight for water rights, we are also fighting for women’s rights,” he said, noting that more than 61 percent of women’s jobs in Pakistan are in agriculture.
Malik also outlined Pakistan’s domestic efforts, including policies that bring women, local communities and young people into decisions about water and climate. He announced the creation of a new Green Virtual University to promote research on farming, water management and building resilience to climate change.
For Pakistan, he said, World Water Day was more than a symbolic observance. It was a chance to restate the country’s commitment to defending water rights, women’s rights and the needs of its most vulnerable citizens on every available international platform.
The Indus Waters Treaty, negotiated with the help of the World Bank in 1960, divides the rivers of the Indus basin: the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — flow mostly to Pakistan, while the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — are allocated largely to India. For more than 60 years the pact has held through multiple wars and periods of intense hostility, often cited as a rare success story in water diplomacy.
India announced in April 2025 that it would suspend its obligations under the treaty, citing the Pahalgam attack. That decision has now pulled the long-respected agreement squarely into the center of the broader political and security standoff between the two countries.
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