ISLAMABAD, June 4: Attorney General of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan will lead a four-member delegation to Paris next week for talks on controversial Baglihar hydropower project with the World Bank appointed neutral expert, sources told Dawn on Saturday.

The Bank appointed a Swiss national, Raymond Lafitte, a civil engineer and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, as the neutral expert last month at Pakistan’s request.

Pakistan maintains that the design of the 450 MW Baglihar dam, being constructed by India on river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir violates the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. India insists it does not. At the two-day talks slated for June 9-10 procedure for the Baglihar case and a work schedule will be chalked out, it is learnt.

Other Pakistani officials who will participate in the Paris talks Are Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, Water and Power Secretary Mr Ashfaq Mehmood and director-general South Asia at the Foreign Ministry Mr Jalil Abbas Jilani, sources said.

All these officials had been closely involved in the lengthy negotiations with India on the Baglihar issue that ended in a deadlock this January. The Pakistan delegation is scheduled to leave for Paris on Tuesday.