'India could use water as weapon': Pakistan minister as Indus Waters Treaty remains in abeyance

Pakistan Minister Warns India Could 'Weaponise' Indus Water Treaty

Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said India could use the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) as a weapon, expressing hope that "better sense" would prevail to prevent another war between the neighbours over water. Iqbal stressed that the treaty had remained "untouchable" for nearly seven decades since it was signed in 1960, but that India had unilaterally held it in abeyance.

"The Indus Water Treaty has stood the test of time for the last 70 years. India and Pakistan fought several wars, but it was considered untouchable because it is an international agreement, and this time around the Indian government has unilaterally held it in abeyance... first time probably water has been weaponised in history," Iqbal told the Asia Society.

"We now face this threat that they can use water as a weapon to deny Pakistan when it needs it for its crops and release it when we don't need it... We are using all diplomatic means to make sure that we don't have future wars on water because we have already seen lots of wars," the minister added.

Iqbal described South Asia as the "least integrated" region in the world, urging countries to prioritise development, poverty, illiteracy, and the youth "bulge." He warned that Pakistan "cannot surrender at any cost the future of its 250 million people for its food security and right of water," adding that if such a scenario were allowed, "every state that is on the lower side of water supply would be hostage to any country that controls the rivers."

His remarks came days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned India of a "direct response" for putting the IWT in abeyance. Sharif said India "proved itself an enemy of peace by unilaterally and illegally suspending the Indus Waters Treaty" and declared that "every single drop of Pakistan's water is our red line." Sharif made the statement on August 13, on the eve of Pakistan's Independence Day.

The treaty's abeyance follows India's decision to suspend the agreement after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year, a move Pakistani leaders have repeatedly described as an "act of war."