Islamabad:Federal Minister for Water Resources Mian Mueen Wattoo has described the River Indus as “the pulse of Pakistan,” and said that it fills homes, water fields and carries the hopes of the country’s children.
Mr Wattoo was delivering keynote address at a seminar.on “A treaty in turbulence: Indus Waters Treaty, hydro-diplomacy and regional peace” organised here by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
He said water must not become a weapon and directly urged New Delhi to step back, restore the treaty and allow the Permanent Indus Commission to resume meetings and data exchange. Let Indus remain river of life, and not conflict, he added. He said Pakistan would continue to pursue every available legal and diplomatic avenue, including the Court of Arbitration. He noted that delegations led by the then Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN had already raised the issue at multiple forums. Expressing his confidence that international pressure would eventually compel India to reverse the decision, he called it a matter concerning the lives of 250 million people.
He said Pakistan does not object to India’s legal and peaceful use of shared waters but insists on lawful conduct and the resumption of data-sharing, which is an obligation under the treaty. Restraint should not be mistaken for weakness, he warned, adding that Pakistan would simultaneously work to strengthen its own irrigation efficiency, climate resilience and storage capacity at home.
Syed Mehar Ali Shah, Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, said India’s present capability to manipulate flows around two to four days’ disruption in the monsoon season and eight to ten days in winter was tolerable for now. However, he warned that under-construction Indian projects, including further storage upstream of Baglihar and Salal and the 1.2-million-acre-foot Chenab-Ravi link, could extend that manipulation window to 20 or 30 days and represent a clear breach of Article III of the treaty. He said Pakistan had already ceded the entire eastern river system in 1960 and now depends fully on the western rivers, with groundwater offering no independent buffer since it is recharged largely through canal seepage.
He outlined Pakistan’s response so far condemnation of India, letters to the UN Security Council and General Assembly, outreach to major capitals and engagement at forums in Mexico, Washington, Brussels, Doha, Astana and Abu Dhabi. He cited a UN Special Rapporteurs’ report of December 16, 2025, that termed India’s unilateral suspension unlawful and warned of a humanitarian crisis because of it.
Ahmer Bilal Soofi, President, Research Society of International Law (RSIL), said that India’s action amounts to a breach of international law. There is little precedent for a state threatening to weaponise water in this manner, he said.
Earlier, Dr Sajid Amin Javed, Deputy Executive Director (Research), SDPI, said water underpins the economy, health and future of South Asia and that the current hydro-diplomacy standoff would shape the basis of both economic and political diplomacy in the region. He warned that if a country can unilaterally bypass a long-standing treaty, it risked setting a precedent for other states.
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