LAHORE: Pakistan may approach the World Bank under Article 9 of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) to press India to fulfil commitment it had made in August of getting its two hydropower projects — 1,000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnal — in­spect­ed by Pakistani experts.

“We still hope that India will fulfil its commitment it had made with us during a high-level two-day meeting of the Permanent Com­mission for Indus Waters (PCIW) held in Lahore during last week of August. However, we (in case of complete refusal by India) may invoke the IWT’s Article 9 that empowers the two countries to approach the WB for the appointment of neutral expert or constitution of a court of arbitration for resolving any issue if it proves to be the breach of treaty,” Pakistan’s Commissioner for IWT Mehr Ali Shah told Dawn on Friday.

During the PCIW’s 115th meeting held between the two countries from Aug 29 to 30 in Lahore, India had agreed to allow Pakistani experts to inspect the projects at Chenab basin by the end of September. It had also promised to schedule visit of Pakistani experts for inspection of the Kishanganga project at Jhelum basin at a later stage. Similarly, Islamabad, too, had agreed to allow New Delhi to carry out inspection of Kotri Barrage over the Indus after September. As a result, India had finally scheduled inspection of the projects at Chenab basin by Pakistani experts from Oct 7 to 11. But later, it postponed the same on the pretext of local bodies’ elections in the respective areas.

During the last week of October, the Pakistan’s Indus water commissioner telephoned his counterpart Pradeep Kumar Saxena and urged him to give a schedule for the tour of experts. However, Mr Saxena said it wouldn’t be possible during first or second week of De­c­em­ber due to local Punchayat elections in the state where these projects are located.

“We will once again contact the Indian commission for Indus waters through hotline on Monday or Tuesday, urging it to fulfil the commitment as soon as possible. And we will continue requesting it to do so,” Mr Shah said. “And if the commission finally refuses, we will have no option but to invoke the treaty’s Article 9. We have already told them that the treaty empowers us to approach the WB in case any issue remains unresolved at the commission level.”

Pakistan had written the last letter (third reminder) on Nov 24 to India and sought scheduling of the inspection soon after conclusion of the Punchayat elections. How­ever, India is yet to reply.

“As the Punchayat elections would probably end on Dec 11, we still hope that they would schedule our visit during third or last week of this month. We also hope that India wouldn’t force us to invoke Article 9,” Mr Shah said.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2018