Islamabad, Jun 18 (PTI) Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday expressed concern over Indian projects on the Indus river, warning that such measures could pose serious risks to regional stability and water security.
Dar, also the foreign minister, made the comments while addressing a seminar via a video link organised by the Embassy of Pakistan in Brussels and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.
Dar “expressed concern over recent Indian reservoir expansion and water diversion projects on the Indus river system, warning that such measures could alter natural river flows, foster hydro-hegemony, and pose serious risks to regional stability and water security,” according to the Foreign Office.
He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to dialogue, diplomacy, and international law, while calling for greater international cooperation on water security.
Dar emphasised that peaceful coexistence among nations rests on respect for international law, treaty obligations, and multilateral frameworks.
His remarks came after media reports that claimed India was planning projects on the three rivers allotted to Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty of 1960.
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 Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance.
The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus River and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.
“The treaty (IWT) envisages the peaceful resolution of disputes within its own framework,” Dar said.
“Pakistan remains committed to resolving all issues through dialogue, diplomacy and the mechanism provided under international law,” he said.
“Our position is guided not by confrontation, but by the conviction that lasting solutions can only emerge through cooperation and respect for mutually agreed obligations,” he added. PTI SH ZH ZH
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