Indus Water Treaty strained again

India’s refusal to accept award cannot save it forever

Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Friday that Pakistan would guard its interests under the Indus Waters Treaty, with special reference to the Treaty. The Supplemental Award was announced on July 13 even though India refused to recognise the Court’s jurisdiction, claiming that its suspension of the IWT estopped all proceedings. However, as pointed by the spokesman, the IWT has no exit or suspension clause. The only way to stop it operating would be for both India and Pakistan to agree that it should no longer continue in force.India’ unilateral action is a violation of the UN Laws of Treaty. While its enforcement is the responsibility of the World Bank, which is a guarantor, the violation of the UN Laws of Treaty means that the case will have tro go before the International Court of Justice.

The IWT is the result of Indian bad behaviour in the 1950s, when it attempted to undo the Partition by stopping the flow of water into Pakistan and starving it into submission, which caused an international outcry. The IWT resulted. What India probably does not realize is that the IWT is in one respect a very conservative treaty, in that it closely follows, in great, some would even say excruciating, detail, international customary law on water rights. Its really radical departure is to provide agreed mechanisms and forums for deciding disputes. In effect, by suspending the operation of the IWT, India has merely revived the previous customary law. Instead of the Indus Commissioners in the respective Water Ministries, the respective embassies will have to handle the issue. Or is India going to claim an exceptionalism that even the USA does not (it obeys international customary law in waterways shored with Canada as well as Mexico)?

India is treading a dangerous path. If it goes on behaving as if the Treaty does not exist, it will be unable to control its own extremists. This in turn will lead to reactions in Pakistan. The Indus Waters are so much a matter of survival, that a section of opinion still castigates the Ayub government for giving up three of the five Indus subsidiaries. If India wants a bone of contention to provoke conflict, it has hit upon the very thing. It is time for the international community to step in, much as it did in the 1950s, because the matter is going to grow much more serious unless stopped now by bringing India back to obeying the law.