WASHINGTON, Jan 27: World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn arrives in Islamabad on Feb 7 for talks on issues including the Baglihar dam dispute between India and Pakistan, bank sources told Dawn on Thursday.
"Although the visit was already scheduled, it is obvious that the water dispute between India and Pakistan will dominate some of the discussions," said a World Bank official.
Sources in the bank also confirmed that Pakistan's Ambassador to US Jehangir Karamat met Mr Wolfensohn in Washington on Wednesday and urged him to help settle the dispute.
Ambassador Karamat is believed to have informed the WB president that Pakistan had already exhausted all possible means for bilaterally settling this issue with India and that's why it was appealing to the bank for arbitration.
Mr Karamat also conveyed a message from Islamabad which said that under the Indus Water Treaty the World Bank was a party to the agreement for the distribution of water resources between India and Pakistan and it was required to arbitrate whenever there's a dispute.
Pakistan believes that the treaty does not require an arbitration request to be endorsed by both Islamabad and New Delhi, as speculated by some World Bank officials. It is the first time Pakistan has sought arbitration in the World Bank-brokered water-sharing treaty, which it signed with India in 1960.
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 of the International Law Group of the World Bank, 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 WB website, 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.