Dawn (Pakistan)
'Water is our red line': Info minister says IWT cannot be unilaterally revoked or amended, remains in force
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar asserted on Monday that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan could not be unilaterally revoked or altered, stressing that the people of Pakistan had a right to Indus waterways under the “legally enforceable treaty” that remained in force.
He said this while addressing a press conference alongside Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik in Islamabad.
Tarar’s statement comes at a time when water and the IWT remains a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord last year — a move that followed a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.
More recently, Indian Water Minister CR Patil said his country was working to ensure “not a single drop of water” would flow into Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has maintained that any attempt to change the flow of cross-border waterways would be considered an “act of war”.
At the outset of the press briefing, Tarar said the world had endorsed that water security was important for Pakistan and the country had a right to it.
“Legally, Pakistan’s stance has garnered support internationally, as the IWT cannot be unilaterally revoked, abolished or amended,” he added.
The minister said the treaty had laid out a framework with clarity, which was “in the field and [remains] implemented”.
Tarar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had stated multiple times that “water is our lifeline, as well as our red line”.
“Our people have a right to water through a legally enforceable treaty that was accepted by both countries, that remains implemented today, and regarding which India has been disgraced on various forums. Their stance was not accepted at any forum,” he added.
He said a seminar would be held in Islamabad on Tuesday, during which awareness would be raised about Pakistan’s rights under the treaty. “Water and legal experts from around the world will be attending the seminar,” he said.
The minister reiterated that experts had accepted Pakistan’s rights under the IWT internationally. “So this is a victory for Pakistan in the narrative domain that the entire world is accepting its narrative and stance on the Indus Waters Treaty,” he said.
Speaking after him, Malik said the IWT had been raised at various international forums during the last month or two. “Pakistan’s stance was also endorsed at the international court of arbitration,” he added.
Highlighting the consequences of irregular water flows, he acknowledged that it was partly due to climate change. However, he added, there was another factor as well.
“There is a tap being controlled by the prime minister of a neighbouring country. He says he will not let even a drop of water flow into Pakistan,” Malik added.
He said that this matter would be debated at the seminar tomorrow, noting that 40-50 per cent of Pakistan’s population relied on agriculture for their livelihood. Moreover, 20-25pcn of the country’s economy depended on agriculture, he said.
However, he continued, “someone else [is trying to] control the entirety of the country’s food security, 50pc of employment in the country and 25pc of the economy”.
He added that Pakistan had already declared that anyone trying to deprive it of its water would face severe consequences. “And we have shown this as well,” he said.
“But, there is also the question of justice. We will protect ourselves, […] but what about other countries and the poor elsewhere? Does every upper riparian now have the right to stop the flow of water to the lower riparian?” he questioned.
He noted that elsewhere in the world, water continued to flow even in the absence of a treaty, governed only by a convention. “But we even have a treaty. […] How can the water be stopped here then? This is the case that we will present tomorrow,” he said.
“The treaty exists,” he asserted, adding that Tuesday’s conference was primarily about justice and rights. “It will be decided what justice is internationally. […] It will be decided whether the children in lower riparians across the world have a right to water.”
Responding to a question, he highlighted the significance of all political parties coming together, adding that “we will reach a consensus” on dams’ construction.
“We should at least agree that we need to regulate the water [flow] and we need dams. God willing, there will be no dispute with any political party regarding this,” he said.
A treaty under strain
The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, regulates the distribution of the Indus River system between India and Pakistan. It allocates the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India, while the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — are largely allocated to Pakistan.
The agreement has long been considered one of the most durable frameworks of cooperation between the two countries, surviving wars and repeated crises. However, it has come under strain since India announced in 2025 that it was placing its treaty obligations in abeyance.
The announcement followed an attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists — an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad without evidence. For its part, Pakistan strongly denied the allegations and called for a neutral investigation.
In June 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) — an organisation that provides a framework for international disputes — had issued a Supplemental Award of Competence, stating that India could not unilaterally hold the treaty in abeyance.
India has maintained that it will keep the treaty in abeyance until Pakistan ends alleged support for cross-border terrorism — an accusation that Islamabad denies.
Last month, Pakistan hailed another supplemental award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that it said affirmed Islamabad’s position of the Indus Waters Treaty, placing “substantive limits on India’s water-control capability” on the Indus River system’s western rivers.
The decision pertained to maximum pondage — a technical term for the maximum volume of water that could be stored in a reservoir — in Indus Waters Treaty proceedings arising from design disputes concerning the Ratle Hydroelectric Plant and the Kishenganga Hydroelectric Project in occupied Kashmir.
While the decision was not publicly shared by the PCA, an official statement by the Pakistan government said it addressed a core treaty concern that “India cannot justify increased pondage through imagined capacity, artificial load curves, unrealistic peaking assumptions, or bare assertions of compliance with paragraph 15 release limits”.
Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also said that at least 17 projects by India on waterways part of the Indus River System would give New Delhi the “tools for hydro-hegemony”.
Indian news outlet CNBC TV18 recently reported that India would begin work on a proposed “Link-3 Project”, located on Chenab in Himachal Pradesh, on August 1. The project aims to divert surplus water from the Chenab river to the Beas basin and is estimated to cost 26.2 billion Indian rupees, as per Indian news agency ANI.
When asked about these reports during a weekly briefing on June 4, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi denounced India’s plans to build a river-linking project to divert water from Chenab to the Beas river as a “grave violation” of the Indus Waters Treaty and other international laws.
“Yes, we have seen this report as well as the public tendered document issued by the government of India that India has invited bids for the Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel project with the intention of transferring 1.9m acre feet of water annually from Chenab into the Beas system.
“Such an inter-basin diversion of water of the Chenab into the Beas system constitutes a grave violation of not just the IWT but also of the laws of treaty, particularly the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as well as the broader framework of international water law, including the principles reflected in the 1977 UN convention on watercourses,” he said.
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