Pakistan to take up with India any development activity in violation of IWT: Foreign Office

Islamabad, Jan 8 (PTI) Pakistan on Thursday said that it would take up with India at the political and diplomatic level any development activity by New Delhi on the western rivers in violation of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

During the weekly media briefing here, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi also said that the IWT remains a binding international instrument and there is no provision for abeyance of the treaty.

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the IWT of 1960 in "abeyance".

The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

Andrabi said any project built on the Chenab, Jhelum and Neelam is subject to scrutiny under the IWT and “our Indus Water Commissioner has written on certain projects on Chenab River”.

“If there are some developments upstream on Jhelum and Neelam, we would obviously be taking it up with India, at the level of the Indus Commissioner. We may also raise it at the political/diplomatic level, with India and at relevant international forums,” he said.

Andrabi also rejected as "irresponsible and misleading" External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks that Pakistan was running training camps for decades to support terrorism.

“Once again, India has sought to deflect attention from its own deeply troubling record as a neighbour,” he said.

“For smaller states in the region, India, too, has been a source of coercion rather than cooperation, while minorities within its borders face escalating intimidation and repression” the spokesman alleged.

To a question about the demolition of structures near a mosque in Delhi, he said that Pakistan noted the development. He alleged that the demolition was not an isolated incident but a "very systemic and deliberate campaign." Talking about Afghanistan, Andrabi said that Pakistan and China agreed to continue leveraging the trilateral mechanism, which included Afghanistan and the last meeting was held in August.

He said that Pakistan does not have any bilateral issue with Afghanistan, except this one major issue of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. He demanded written assurances from Afghanistan to stop militancy and “then commitment to fulfill it”.

He also said that the Pakistan, Bangladesh and China trilateral mechanism meeting took place last year at the level of the vice minister and foreign secretaries and “we tend to follow it and we look forward to positive outcomes, promote cooperation regionally and sub-regionally”. PTI SH ZH ZH