ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: Pakistan on Wednesday decided to seek setting up of a Court of Arbitration or appointment of a neutral expert to stop India from diverting Neelum waters in violation of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz presided over a meeting of all stakeholders here on Tuesday and directed to examine the dispute from all legal and technical aspects whether Pakistan should seek appointment of a neutral expert or setting up of a court of arbitration under the aegis of the World Bank.
A senior official of the water and power ministry told Dawn that Pakistan would most probably seek establishment of a court of arbitration because the dispute involved inter-tributary transfer of water which was more of a legal issue than a technical one.
“Legal recourse under provisions of the (Indus Waters) treaty is the only option left and we would formally request the World Bank to set up a court of arbitration to resolve the dispute,” he said.
Technical disputes listed in the annexure-F are referred to the neutral expert for adjudication. In case the dispute is not covered in the list of annexure-F, then it is referred to the court of arbitration under article-IX and annexure-G of the treaty, the official explained.
Pakistan’s commissioner to the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) Syed Jamat Ali Shah presented a status report on the Kishanganga Storage and Hydropower Project being built by India and briefed the meeting about his recent discussions with his Indian counterpart in India.
He informed the meeting that India was moving ahead with the project despite Pakistan’s technical and legal objections and did not show any flexibility to address these reservations at the PIC level.
He, therefore, proposed that Pakistan should exhaust all provisions of the treaty, particularly article-IX and Annexure-G of the treaty, for establishment of court of arbitration or the appointment of neutral expert, to protect its water rights.
The prime minister approved the proposal in principle and directed all the relevant agencies of the government to prepare the legal case and see if it was fit for the jurisdiction of the court.
The meeting also reviewed a counter memoir on Baglihar dam dispute that Pakistan is required to submit to the World Bank appointed neutral expert by December 30 in response to India’s memoir. The prime minister also directed the relevant agencies to fine-tune the counter memoir in the next three days.
Under article-IX of the treaty, Pakistan would ask the World Bank to constitute a seven-member court of arbitration to settle a dispute over Neelum river because it involved diversion of Neelum waters to Jhelum via Wullar Barrage through a 22-km tunnel.
