November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Pakistan has decided to serve a second and final notice on India to settle the Baglihar dam dispute by December 31 and at the same time ask New Delhi to suspend work on the dam project being built on river Chenab in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

Pakistan served the first notice on India this June, asking New Delhi to immediately suspend construction work, arrange for an inspection tour of the project site, and resolve the issue by December 31.

The decision to serve the final notice was taken after exhaustive consultations at the Pakistan Commission for Indus Waters in Lahore on Monday, the sources said. Representatives of the foreign office and the water and power ministry also attended the meeting that was given a detailed briefing by the commission’s team that conducted an on-site inspection of the under-construction Baglihar dam.

The three-member technical experts team, led by the Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters, Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, visited India last month. The other two members were GM technical service, Wapda, and GM projects, Nespak.

The team informed the Lahore meeting that the visit had confirmed Pakistan’s apprehension that the Baglihar project was being executed in violation of the 1960 bilateral Indus Waters Treaty. The team found against the Indian contention that the site was not suited for ungated spillways and also concluded that the pondage facility exceeded twice the storage capacity allowed under the treaty.

Pakistan’s Indus Waters Commissioner will be shortly conveying these observations to the Indian side, the sources said.

The government is clear that if India fails to resolve the dispute by the December 31 deadline, it will immediately seek the intervention of the World Bank that has brokered the treaty and also stood as its guarantor.

“If India does not take care of our concerns by December 31 we will be left with no option but to go to the World Bank for appointment of neutral experts,” a senior official told Dawn.

Pakistan has already alerted the World Bank officials in Washington on this matter, Dawn learnt through diplomatic sources.