THE Senate resolution asking the government to ‘revisit’ the Indus Waters Treaty with India is bizarre.

What is even more confusing is the eagerness with which the resolution was supported by senators from the PPP, who have had many opportunities in power to do exactly that, but had made no mention of it until now.

It appears the senators are either not aware what ‘revisiting’ the treaty would entail or are not serious about what they are saying.

Either way the resolution does not cast the Senate in a positive light at a time when its chairman is trying to get the government to take resolutions more seriously. In fact, there ought to have been more homework before launching the vote for a resolution.

The PPP’s Karim Ahmed Khwaja has done enough work on water issues in Pakistan. He should know that the treaty took a decade to negotiate, and has held sway for more than half a century even as ties deteriorated between the two signatories.

Revisiting this treaty could open a Pandora’s box for Pakistan, and may not work to its advantage given India’s far greater autonomy of action today as compared to the years following Partition, when the treaty was negotiated.

What must also be realised is that Pakistan’s water woes are more a result of domestic realities than anything connected with the treaty.

Agriculture accounts for the bulk of freshwater utilisation in Pakistan, and the problems are linked more to the entitlements regime that govern water allocations, as well as wasteful farm practices. Hardly any effort has been made to rectify these or build more reservoirs.

It would have been better if the senators had come to the session with ideas on how to improve entitlements and utilisation practices. And if revisiting the treaty was still deemed necessary after this, the least one would have expected was more information.

What legal options does Pakistan have to force India to ‘revisit’ the treaty? What would we seek to get out of this process? And what leverage do we have to obtain compliance with our terms?

The hapless minister of state for water and power tried to point out these issues, but the chair sent the resolution for a vote before they could be addressed.

As a result, the situation ended up looking a little absurd, with the Senate holding a bombastic resolution in its hands but without a clue about what to do next.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2016