Political disputes must not affect Indus treaty: experts

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• Participants urge Pakistan to continue adhering to accord • Munir Akram calls for active diplomacy, continued use of agreement mechanisms • Rizwan Saeed says treaty faces a ‘crisis of intent’ • Sherry says India can’t unilaterally suspend or reinterpret treaty WASHINGTON: Pakistan should not allow political and security disputes to become a justification for departing from the Indus Waters Treaty, participants at a policy dialogue in Washington said, stressing that such issues should be dealt with separately. The speakers rejected India’s position that the treaty would remain in abeyance until violence in the region ceased, arguing that water-sharing arrangements should remain separate from political and security disputes and that the treaty’s provisions should continue to govern management of the Indus river system. The observation came during a discussion on the future of the treaty hosted by the Pakistan Embassy, with participants warning against allowing political tensions to undermine an agreement that has survived wars and repeated crises between Pakistan and India. The dialogue, titled “The Indus Waters Treaty: South Asian Security at Crossroads”, brought together US policy experts, academics, legal and water specialists, representatives of international organisations and diplomats to examine the treaty’s future and growing challenges to regional water security. Former Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram said Pakistan should continue to abide by the treaty despite current tensions, arguing that India’s decision to place it in abeyance did not alter its legal status. “Pakistan shouldn’t depart from the letter and spirit of the treaty,” he said. Mr Akram also argued that Pakistan needed an active diplomatic strategy in response to India’s position and should continue participating in treaty mechanisms even if New Delhi refused to do so. He suggested exploring the creation of an impartial international mechanism, including a possible role for the United Nations, and said Pakistan should also consult China, which he viewed as being in a position to influence the outcome. The discussion repeatedly returned to the need to preserve the treaty’s legal and institutional framework. Participants noted that the Indus Waters Treaty had survived wars, crises and prolonged political tensions and had helped keep water cooperation insulated from disputes. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Rizwan Saeed Sheikh said Islamabad had consistently favoured dialogue, diplomacy and peaceful coexistence, pointing to its efforts to facilitate dialogue over other regional disputes. “If we can do it for others, we will do it for ourselves,” he said, referring to Pakistan’s efforts to help resolve the Iran-US dispute. He also urged India to remain engaged with Pakistan, saying: “You cannot change neighbours, so we want to engage in constructive dialogue.” In his concluding remarks, Mr Sheikh said the problem with the Indus Waters Treaty was not its substance but the manner in which it was being implemented. “There is no crisis of content in the Indus Waters Treaty … there is a crisis of intent in implementation,” he said. Adil Najam, professor of international relations and dean emeritus at Boston University, said the treaty defined the future of water cooperation in South Asia and stressed the importance of cooperation in managing shared resources. He said climate change and increasing water stress should encourage, rather than undermine, cooperation between countries sharing water resources. Participants also cautioned against dehumanising the other side, with one speaker noting that there were “many sensible people in India” and arguing that the two countries needed to look for practical solutions despite their political differences. The discussion examined whether the current dispute was primarily political or legal, with legal experts stressing the importance of international law and established dispute-resolution mechanisms. Speakers also warned about the consequences of treating water as an instrument of political or military pressure. A large share of Pakistan’s population and economy depend on the Indus river system, participants noted, raising concerns about the regional consequences if water were weaponised. The nuclear dimension of the dispute was also discussed, with participants cautioning against assumptions that nuclear deterrence alone would prevent escalation. Mr Najam noted that despite the lack of trust between India and Pakistan, the treaty had worked for decades and argued that the priority should be to prevent the existing framework from falling apart. Participants also stressed the importance of restoring technical engagement, transparency and data-sharing between Pakistan and India under the treaty’s provisions, particularly as climate change and growing water stress place additional pressure on the region’s shared resources. Sherry calls for full compliance Separately, PPP Vice President and parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman urged India to ensure full compliance with the Indus Waters Treaty, warning that the politicisation of water and its use as a tool of diplomatic pressure threatened regional stability and undermined decades of bilateral water cooperation. Senator Rehman said India could not unilaterally suspend, disregard or reinterpret a decades-old bilateral water management framework at will. She said any decision to withdraw from or suspend an international agreement could not be made through a unilateral declaration, but had to be undertaken in accordance with established procedures of international law. “The Indian government’s recent actions cannot, in any manner, undermine Pakistan’s legitimate rights and interests concerning its water resources,” she said. Senator Rehman stressed that taking the legal dispute to international forums was not a compulsion for Pakistan but a lawful right available to it under the established international framework. She said India could not use its water and hydropower projects as a pretext to disregard internationally agreed principles and limitations governing the shared river system. Iftikhar A. Khan in Islamabad also contributed to this report Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2026

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