Indus Water Treaty: India, Pakistan expected to hold parleys in Islamabad this month

New Delhi: India and Pakistan are expected to hold parleys on various aspects of the Indus Water Treaty in Islamabad later this month.

Government sources told PTI that the meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission will be held before March 31 "as it is mandated" under the treaty.

Declaring that "blood and water cannot flow together", Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a meeting in September to review the treaty in the backdrop of the terror strikes, including the Uri attack.

India, Pakistan and Pakistan are the signatories of the water treaty and are in discussions about how to resolve the disagreements the two countries have over New Delhi's construction of two hydroelectric power plants.

Maintaining its neutral role as a Treaty signatory, the World Bank in December announced a pause in the separate processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty to allow the two countries to consider alternative ways to resolve their disagreements. The hope with announcing the pause was for the two countries to begin to resolve the issue in an amicable manner and in line with the spirit of the treaty rather than pursuing concurrent processes that could make the treaty unworkable over time.

The treaty was signed on September 19, 1960 by India`s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan President Ayub Khan.

It is one of the most liberal water-sharing pacts in the world.

The agreement covers six rivers - the three eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and their tributaries and the three western rivers of Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and their tributaries.

Water from the eastern rivers has been allocated to India, and New Delhi is obligated to let 80 percent water from the western rivers flow to Pakistan. The treaty gives the lower riparian Pakistan more `than four times` the water available to India.