At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told an audience including his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, that Pakistan did not accept the use of terror as a political weapon and the world should not either, even as India was unleashing more water on Pakistan, this time in the form of opening the spillways of the Salal Dam and flooding the Sutlej. It was perhaps appropriate that Mr Sharif was able to raise the issue of terrorism at a forum which had been founded to establish cooperation on terrorism. It was worth noting that the Summit also condemned both the Pahalgam attack and the Jaffer Express hijacking, though avoiding any assigning blame. Pakistan says that India was behind the Jaafer Express outrage, India alleges Pakistan was behind the Pahalgam attack.
While Mr Sharif spoke about the need for India to return to the observance of the Indus Basin Waters Treaty, Mr Modi showed the disregard for its provisions by approving the release of more water iny\to the Sutlej, as if the attempt to cause damage to Pakistan;s canal works or barrages, had not borne fruit after the recent releases into the Ravi. It seems India intends to bypass the Geneva Convention against damaging the irrigation works of an opponent, by using water instead of bombs. Water is a weapon which can only be used in the monsoon, but dam spillways can be opened at any time the dam is filled, and India will be limited, though not entirely, to the monsoon. However, with the intensification brought about by climate change, India will be able to use water against Pakistan for increasingly longer periods.
Mr Sharif was right to raise the issue of the IWT at the SCO, and he should ensure that Pakistan does so at every forum. The IWT issue is an existential one for Pakistan, and the world community should recognize that Indian intransigence could well result in untoward consequences. Mr Modi’s very presence at the SCO raised hackles in the USA at his hobnobbing with China and Russia; he should realize that now is not the time India should engage interrorism, whether by sabotage or by water. Its recent experiences should show it that it cannot break Pakistsn’s will that way.
