Pakistan Minister Ahsan Iqbal Warns Against Weaponization of Indus Water Treaty

Pakistan minister Ahsan Iqbal has said India could “weaponise” the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) and expressed hope that “better sense” would prevail to prevent the two neighbours from going to war again, this time over water. He noted that the treaty had remained “untouchable” for almost seven decades since it was signed in 1960, but New Delhi has now been kept in abeyance “unilaterally."

“...Indus Water Treaty that has stood the test of time for the last 70 years. India and Pakistan fought several wars, but it (IWT) was considered untouchable because it is an international agreement, and this time around the Indian government has unilaterally held it in abeyance... first time probably water has been weaponised in history,” Iqbal told the Asia Society.

“We (Pakistan) now face this threat that they (India) can use water as a weapon to deny Pakistan when it needs it for its crops and release it when we don't need it... We are using all the diplomatic means to make sure that we don't have future wars on water because we have already seen lots of wars,” the minister added. He further stated that South Asian countries should instead focus on issues such as development, poverty, illiteracy and the youth “bulge”, describing the region as the “least integrated” in the world.

"So we hope that there is better sense in our neighbour's (India) mind and we don't see that water is weaponised and we go to another conflict with India over water because Pakistan cannot surrender at any cost the future of its 250 million people for its food security and right of water. If we let it happen, then every state that is on the lower side of water supply would be hostage to any country that controls the rivers," the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader remarked.

Iqbal's remarks came days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned India of a “direct response” for putting the IWT in abeyance. “India proved itself an enemy of peace by unilaterally and illegally suspending the Indus Waters Treaty. I declare in clear terms that every single drop of Pakistan's water is our red line. If India does not come to its senses, it will be responded to directly,” Sharif said on August 13, on the eve of Pakistan's Independence Day. New Delhi put the agreement in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year. Since then, Pakistani leaders have repeatedly called water their “red line” and threatened India over the move, describing it as an “act of war.”