12 January 2005	Wednesday	01 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Some 20 envoys from key European and Western missions were given a detailed briefing on the dispute with India over the Baglihar dam at the Foreign Office here on Tuesday , a day after the prime minister gave green light to relevant ministries to prepare for international arbitration.

The briefing was organized on the request of some foreign missions that have been closely monitoring the matter that they believe has the potential of turning into a major political issue between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

The briefing was conducted by Water and Power Secretary Ashfaq Mehmud who led the Pakistan delegation at the last round of talks on the Baglihar issue with India, it is learnt. Foreign Ministry's South Asia director-general Jalil Abbas Jilani, who was a member of the Pakistani delegation, also spoke on the occasion.

Besides heads of the EU missions, envoys from the embassies of Canada, US, China, Australia and Japan also attended the 90-minute briefing. The secretary of water and power explained to envoys technical aspects involved in the issue, the requirements of the 1960 bilateral Indus Waters Treaty and how the Indians were departing from it, sources told Dawn later.

Diplomats were told that since differences were conclusively established and bilateral track had failed to resolve them, the only option for Pakistan was to resort to other avenues provided by the treaty to settle the dispute.

hat the mechanism of the neutral expert provided by the treaty to settle the dispute needed to be invoked. In this context the need for both the parties to abide by the provisions of the Treaty was emphasised.

It was underlined that differences pertaining to the Baglihar hydro-power project were technical and experts needed to give a determination on it. It was also conveyed to the envoys that Baglihar issue would not have a direct bearing on the composite dialogue process as it was never part of the composite process.

It was pointed out that the treaty had its own built-in mechanism to take care of the differences. When questioned about the general view of the diplomatic community on the Baglihar issue, a senior official said: "There is a lot of concern and interest, especially on the part of Western countries."

The bilateral water-sharing Indus Waters Treaty was brokered by the World Bank that also stood as its guarantor.

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