16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Pakistan has decided to challenge the very construction of Baglihar dam - the project as a whole - and is all set to seek appointment of a neutral expert by the World Bank to resolve the dispute with India over the issue, a senior government official said.

The World Bank is required to appoint a neutral expert on a formal request of either party (Pakistan or India) to settle any water related dispute under article IX and annexure-F of the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960, to which the bank is also a guarantor.

"The whole project is in violation of the (Indus Waters) Treaty, what to talk of height or design," he said and added: "Technically speaking, a run-of-the-river project should not have any storage structure and that is why we are challenging the project itself instead of height or anything else, which obviously would form part of the details."

"We may formally ask the World Bank in a day or two to appoint a neutral expert," the official, who has been involved in the recent Pakistan-India talks over the project in New Delhi told Dawn in a background briefing.

India is constructing a 450-mw hydropower project on river Chenab in the held Kashmir with a storage height of about 475-feet, which from Pakistan's point of view is in violation of the Treaty.

"Without mincing words, I want to make it very clear, and we made it clear in New Delhi also, that Pakistan will use all possible options to stop India from completing the project and there could be no further discussions unless construction work is suspended by India," he said.

This is for the first time in 44-year history of the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960, that a dispute is being referred to the World Bank for arbitration. The treaty survived three wars between the two countries.

The official said the engineers and legal experts were giving final touches to the case which had already been prepared because it was the final stage of getting formally into the legal battle and the government did not want to leave any loophole in the documentation and presentation of facts and figures.