The controversial Baglihar hydro-power project in Indian held Kashmir, which has been simmering for years, quite unexpectedly returned on the Indo-Pakistan agenda last week but ended with yet another ambiguous note.

Now the controversial project would likely to be referred to the political leadership of both the countries for final decision.

After failure of several rounds of talks at the level of the Indus Water Commissions to resolve the differences over Baglihar project, India had recently agreed to have a technical level talk on secretary level to work out a solution although, in the presence of Permanent Indus Water Commission, it was not a forum to discuss such issues.

Just as previous talks, the recent negotiations were also proved to be just a way of moving the dialogue forward as the Baglihar issue still refuses to go away. The official statement from the talks reported nothing more but a "very cordial and friendly atmosphere," a "spirit of goodwill and cooperation" as the two sides discussed ways and means to resolve technical concerns relating to the Baglihar project and "shared assessments on the issue".

Surprisingly, the leader of Pakistani delegation to this talk went one step ahead and declared, with out any solid justification, this ambiguous discussions as a win-win situation for both sides. The present situation may definitely be called a winning position for India, who has always tried to buy time for completion of the controversial project ever since Pakistan had objected on the design of the dam, but can never be termed as a winning position for Pakistan who reportedly went into the discussions seeking no less then the immediate suspension of the construction of the project.

It will be further interesting to note that the Baglihar dam project was reportedly included in the agenda of the discussion at the initiative of Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh , which seems to be clearly an attempt on India's part to ensure that its reluctance to talk on the Baglihar does not give Pakistan an opportunity to involve the third party option.

Pakistan is of the opinion that Baglihar dam is a violation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, which was brokered by the World Bank. A technical meeting between the two Indus Water Commissioners earlier this year has also failed to resolve the row.

The Controversy regarding the design of the project has been discussed in several meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC). However, all these meetings as well as exchange of correspondence with India have, so far, been unable to resolve the questions raised by Pakistan.

Over the years, Pakistan had demanded India to suspend all construction work on the Baglihar Hydro-electric Plant, allow on-site inspection by the Pakistani commissioner and agree to an amicable settlement by the end of December, 2003.

But the India has, so far, responded partially by allowing only the on-site inspection by the Pakistani experts, which took place in October 2003, there by founding physical evidences that the design of the Baglihar power plant was found not in conformity with the provisions of the Treaty.

The Baglihar project has almost reached to near completion and if work is not halted, the hydroelectric plant is set be become functional later this year. This underscores the need for an urgent settlement of the issue as far as Pakistans interests are concerned.

The way our government has handled the protracted Baglihar controversy till now, it seems that it has compromised over this issue for the sake of the so-called confidence building measures (CBMs). At a time when the delicate issue of water shortages is threatening our provincial harmony, turning-off eyes from the Baglihar controversy, which should be termed as a genuine technical, social and economical issue, is tantamount to hand over the rights of our legitimate 8000 cusecs of water daily to India.

At a time when we are contemplating for increasing our water resources for meeting rapidly growing agricultural and domestic requirement, a compromise over a daily loss of 8000 cusec of water would be outrageous for which coming generations would not forgive us.

The present military backed government unfortunately fails to understand that the water of the Indus river system is Pakistans lifeline. In many ways, the issue is more crucial to Pakistans survival than Kashmir. We have been shouting at India over Kashmir since our independence and can go on shouting for all time to come but an early settlement of the Baglihar issue is essential to refrain India for taking such defying attempts to alter the water of our western rivers that is blood life us.

For the time being, Pakistan appears to have put on the backburner its threat to take the dispute to the World Bank, which brokered the 1960 treaty that governs this water issue. Whether the post-SAARC meeting spirit has anything to do with it or not, India is happy with this uncalled far leniency of Pakistan.

The soften stance of Pakistan over this issue clearly reflects a change in Pakistans attitude which had served two notices to India, asking to remove its objections to the controversial project or appoint a neutral expert under the aegis of the World Bank for resolving the dispute.

It would be interesting to note that last year, the prime minister had approved the summery of appointing a neutral expert and relevant ministries and organizations were also assigned various responsibilities. Further, the Attorney-General of Pakistan had finalized a panel of lawyers while NESPAK and WAPDA were preparing technical and engineering reports.

Then surprisingly, the ministry of water and power was stopped by the higher authorities on the request of the foreign office, from issuing statements on Pakistan's dispute with India over the controversial construction of Baglihar Power Project on the plea that it could be interpreted negatively in bilateral talks between the two sides on the issue of Kashmir. Therefore Pakistan decided not to take up the issue of controversial 450-megawatt Baglihar hydropower project at the international forum for the time being. It is very disappointing that for the sack of Kashmir the government has opted to become mum over a genuine issue

Despite pronounced commitment to resolve the issue bilaterally; Indian authorities have not taken any initiative to hold the same for past some time. That being so, government agencies, as well as professionals in the field of management of water resources, have expressed their concern on the Indian attitude.

Pakistan has been trying to settle the disputed Baglihar issue bilaterally since long particularly talking advantage of the currant improved relations between the two countries. In past the two countries resolved the differences on the Salal dam and Wuller barrage on the basis of mutual agreement. But now the key ingredient of bilateral negotiations i.e., good faith, appears to be missing in the Indian attitude on the issue of the Baglihar dam.

In such circumstances, it will be a grave mistake if the government expects that Baglihar controversy can be resolved without invoking article (IX) of the treaty which provides dispute settlement through a neutral observer or arbitrator.

Water sharing from common international rivers is nothing new all around the world. According to a UN survey, out of 200 international rivers, 70 per cent of them are being shared by two countries. There are about 1228 water sharing treaties that were singed in the last 50 years. So, it is legitimate when Islamabad protest Delhis plan that threatens the livelihood of millions of people downstream in Pakistan.

Given that the two countries are embarked on a process of normalization, it is much better for India and Pakistan to resolve this issue at a bilateral level. Arbitration is a costly affair; besides, it would only create further bad blood. But the Indian obstinacy of not resolving the controversy amicably has not left any option but the arbitration.

In order to stop India from reaping any further benefit from the continuous deadlock over Baglihar issue, the government must raise a final political dialogue with India by asking him to immediately suspend the work on the project and start negotiations with a fixed time frame. The government must invoke article (IX) of the Indus Water Treaty immediately, once India tries to avoid or delay this process any more.