ISLAMABAD, June 6: Pakistan on Monday finalized strategy to present its case on the Baglihar dam dispute with India before the World Bank appointed neutral expert later this week in Paris. The strategy was finalized at a meeting convened here on Monday afternoon by Attorney General of Pakistan Makhdoom Ali Khan who will be leading the Pakistan side at the two-day Paris moot.

Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, Water and Power Secretary Ashfaq Mehmood and Director-General for South Asia at the foreign ministry Jalil Abbas Jilani, who are included in the Pakistani delegation, also attended the meeting.

The four-member Pakistani team is scheduled to leave for Paris on Tuesday for the meeting that will begin on Thursday.

The World Bank has also invited India to the meeting to discuss the objections raised by Pakistan on the 450 MW Baglihar dam being constructed on the river Chenab in Occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan maintains that design of the dam violates the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty but India pleads otherwise.

The Paris meeting has been convened by the World Bank for preliminary discussions of the two parties with the neutral expert. The neutral expert will also formulate a work schedule for subsequent proceedings in consultation with the two parties. Notably this will be the first interaction of the two parties with the neutral expert.

The World Bank that had brokered the Indus Waters Treaty has appointed Prof Raymond Lafitte, a Swiss civil engineer, as the neutral expert last month at Pakistan’s request.

The bilateral water-sharing treaty gives both the countries third party option in case of a deadlock over any issue. Article IX of the treaty provides for settling disputes through a neutral expert or arbitration if they cannot be resolved by Indus Waters Commissioners of the two countries.

The decision of the neutral expert would be final and binding on both the parties, officials here maintain. India has been dragging its feet on the Baglihar issue since 1992.