ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Jehangir Karamat is likely to meet World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn at the bank's headquarters in Washington on Wednesday in connection with the Baglihar dam dispute with India, well-placed diplomatic sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

This will be their first meeting after the government formally sought the World Bank mediation over the dam dispute. On Jan 18, Pakistan formally asked the bank to appoint a neutral expert to arbitrate on the Baglihar dispute with India.

Under Article 9(2)(a) of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan can seek the intervention of the World Bank that brokered the bilateral water-sharing treaty. Senior Pakistani officials, who have been involved with the Baglihar dam dispute, may soon leave for Washington.

A team of Pakistani experts would explain Pakistan's case to the relevant department at the bank and brief key members of the diplomatic community there, sources said. In a statement on Sunday the World Bank reportedly said it was mulling over Pakistan's request for appointment of a neutral expert.

Meanwhile, a leading expert of the bank in Washington has predicted a 'prolonged' and 'complicated' legal battle over Baglihar project. Salman Salman, the lead counsel, International Law Group of the World Bank, in a presentation last month on the Indus treaty at the bank's headquarters cautioned that reference for arbitration could end up opening a 'Pandora's Box' with the dispute prolonging for years.

In his presentation, posted on the website of the bank, he said: "We are not a guarantor of the Treaty but a signatory to certain purposes." His assertion was that the treaty had not empowered the bank with a monitoring or enforcement mechanism.

While the bank has an 'obligation' to appoint a neutral expert, it does not have an 'unfettered right' to appoint him, he said, adding that a neutral expert could be nominated in consultation and consent with both the parties. Notably, the bank expert was widely quoted in the Indian press on Monday and Tuesday.