LAHORE: Five incarcerated senior leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf have asked the government to change its stance and get ready to fight the ‘water war’ as enemies are knocking at its gates.

“There cannot be a more blatant announcement of war than India releasing the flood waters of the eastern rivers and inundating Punjab,” PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and Omar Sarfraz Cheema stated in a signed open letter on Wednesday.

In the letter titled, “The Water Terrorism of India”, the incarcerated leaders stated that the water war with India was on. It never stopped since its aggression in May 2025, when it held the Indus Basin Treaty in abeyance, which was the initial act of war. They have refused to talk or negotiate on it. India refused to comply with the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague. This international court had stated in June this year that “India cannot hold the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, that it was not open to India to unilaterally suspend the treaty.

Yet, the letter stated, India shared flood warnings with the foreign office bypassing the Indus Water Commission (IWC). This by itself is a serious violation of international law. Though India claimed that it warned Pakistan on humanitarian ground, Pakistan had constantly been saying that any deviation from IWT would be considered as an act of war.

They stated India had released the flood waters of the eastern rivers that pushed Punjab under high flood besides rivers Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej filled to the brim. The south of Punjab was already flooded by the Indus and now the north eastern part of the province was under the flood waters released by India. “People are being evacuated from Kasur and Narowal. High flood alert has been announced in Vehari, Pakpattan, Okara and Bahawalnagar,” the letter said and added there could not have been a more blatant announcement of war.

Seeing that India was not ready to talk on IWT, the PTI leaders stated that the Pakistan government should have taken this seriously and meetings the prime minister is holding now, should have been conducted since May onwards. They stated Indian PM Narendra Modi would replicate the aggression process of Israel – flooding well will result in food uncertainty and famine.

However, it was sad to see that the state minister of interior, rather than briefing the people of Pakistan about the steps being taken to save people from water tyranny, was busy holding a press conference and demonising Imran Khan and his family.

The PTI leaders stated that the devastation of the floods was worse than 2022. The people of Punjab were already reeling from the wrong agriculture policies.

“There was an overall reduction in all our crops especially cotton, which is the mainstay of our textile industry and now with the floods all over Punjab, majority of our standing crops have been destroyed. There is a complete agri disaster. We will be facing famine, if urgent steps are not taken, we already have food insecurity. As many as 45 per cent of people are living under the poverty line and this disaster will further worsen it,” they observed in the letter.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2025