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ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary General of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Senator Mushahid Husain, said here on Friday that international arbitration should be sought immediately to settle the Baglihar dam dispute with India.
"We should seek international arbitration on this issue immediately as there is a clause for it in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. India cannot violate international agreements with impunity," Senator Mushahid said when Dawn asked him what ought to be Pakistan's next move after talks with India this week failed to resolve the issue.
"Now this matter needs to be taken to its logical conclusion," he added, pointing to invoking Article IX of the Treaty for appointment of a neutral expert by the World Bank to settle the dispute. The bilateral water-sharing Treaty gives both the countries the third party option in case of a deadlock over any issue.
Senator Mushahid said Pakistan had been talking to India in good faith, hoping that the Baglihar issue would be resolved bilaterally, but regretted that India had been 'talking and constructing' at the same time.
He maintained there was a discernible difference in India's posturing and actual policy. "While India's posturing is positive, its policy deep down shows a certain hawkish mindset," he said.
Referring to India's position on a number of other issues including the trans-Pakistan gas pipeline project and the proposed Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, he observed: "It's like one step forward and two steps backwards."
Meanwhile, observers here have criticized Pakistan government for letting India drag its feet on the Baglihar issue for so long and said it should have sought international arbitration much earlier.
A former Pakistani foreign minister, who has also served as foreign secretary, is of the view that Pakistan has been 'too complacent' about it. "It has now been almost made fait accompli," he said. Officials, however, insist that Pakistan stands a good chance to have its concerns redressed through the third party mediation.
DELAY IN DEPARTURE: Pakistani delegation that was in New Delhi for the final round of talks on the Baglihar dam project on Friday missed the return flight because the Indian side delayed signing minutes of the three-day deliberations.
The delegation was unable to reach the airport in time to take the 6p.m. Air India flight to Lahore because their Indian counterparts took unusually long to review and sign the minutes of the meeting which the Pakistani side had repared.
Reportedly the Pakistani side had finalized the minutes and sent them to its Indian counterparts at 4.30 pm. The head of the delegation had conveyed to the Indian side the flight timing and he was assured that they would be able to catch the flight.
Sources told Dawn that Pakistani delegation was clear that it would not leave without the Indian side reviewing and signing the minutes of the meeting. During the last meeting on the Baglihar issue the Indian side had disagreed with the minutes and Pakistan was unable to push its own point of view because the minutes had not been signed by the Indian side, the sources maintained.
