Facing crisis, Pak sent four letters to India asking it to end IWT abeyance

Business Standard

06-06-2025

Pakistan has reportedly sent four consecutive letters urging India to reconsider its decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance following the terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 tourists.
Sources revealed that the letters were dispatched by Pakistan's Ministry of Water Resources Secretary, Syed Ali Murtaza, to India's Jal Shakti Ministry, which then forwarded them to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
With Pakistan now facing an escalating water crisis, the tone of these appeals has grown increasingly urgent, according to individuals familiar with the matter.
The sources further noted that even after India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terror networks in both Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), another letter regarding the IWT was sent by Pakistan.
India firm on terror and treaty abeyance
India has reiterated that there can be no dialogue while terrorism persists, maintaining that 'blood and water also can't flow together.' While the IWT was originally signed in the spirit of goodwill and cooperation, New Delhi asserts that Pakistan violated this spirit by continuing to promote cross-border terrorism.
India has invoked its national security prerogative and affirmed that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Islamabad 'credibly and irrevocably' halts support for cross-border terror. This suspension was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), India's apex strategic body, shortly after the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack. This marks the first time India has suspended the World Bank-mediated agreement.
Following India's military response under Operation Sindoor, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has indicated a willingness to engage in peace talks to resolve bilateral issues.
This shift came after several senior Pakistani politicians appealed to the Sharif government to address what they described as a looming 'water bomb' threatening the country after India's suspension of the IWT.
'We would die of hunger if we don't resolve the water crisis now. The Indus Basin is our lifeline as three-fourths of our water comes from outside the country, nine out of 10 people depend on the Indus water basin for their living, as much as 90 per cent of our crops rely on this water and all our power projects and dams are built on it. This is like a water bomb hanging over us and we must defuse it," Pakistani senator Syed Ali Zafar said in May.
History and scope of the Indus Waters Treaty
Signed in 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty regulates the sharing of six rivers — Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — between India and Pakistan.
India has consistently maintained that Pakistan has undermined the treaty's goodwill by supporting terror activities and obstructing essential upgrades to key water infrastructure projects.
India outlines its position at the United Nations
Responding to Pakistan's criticism at the UN Security Council in New York on 24 May, India's Permanent Representative, P Harish, stated, 'Far-reaching fundamental changes have taken place not only in terms of escalating security concerns through cross-border terror attacks, but also growing requirements for producing clean energy, climate change, and demographic change.'
India has formally approached Pakistan multiple times in the past two years to negotiate modifications to the treaty, but Pakistan has consistently refused.
'Pakistan has continued to consistently block any changes to this infrastructure, and any modifications of the provisions, which are permissible under the treaty,' Harish said.
He also emphasised that, although the treaty's preamble is based on goodwill and friendship, Pakistan has waged three wars and facilitated thousands of terror attacks on India.