Will approach ICJ if India 'violates' Indus Waters Treaty, warns Pakistan

Aziz claimed that India has received a setback in its efforts to isolate Islamabad diplomatically.

Islamabad: Amid indications that Modi government is reviewing the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan has come out in the open with a warning that it will seek legal recourse if India goes back on the 1960 agreement.

Sartaz Aziz, the advisor to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign Affairs, asserted, Tuesday, that India cannot go back on the Indus Water Treaty and said that both the countries are bound to follow what has been agreed upon by Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistani president Ayub Khan.

India can neither unilaterally abrogate nor alter the treaty, Aziz said, adding that Pakistan will approach the International Court of Justice over the issue.

Aziz went on to claim that the Indian government has received a setback in its efforts to isolate Islamabad diplomatically.

According to Dawn, Aziz claimed that about 56 countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Human Rights Council of the United Nations and other world bodies have supported Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir by firmly rejecting India’s allegations.

Emphasising that Pakistan had strongly rejected Indian narratives, Aziz said that the Pakistan government had addressed letters to the world leaders, highlighting the grave situation in Kashmir, besides handing over of dossiers containing facts about the ground reality.

He also alleged that Indian government was trying to impose Indian hegemony in the region with its own narratives, which was unacceptable to Pakistan.

Rebuffing India’s claims over Balochistan, the advisor asserted by saying that there was no relevance between the situation in Kashmir and the province. He added: “It was an attempt to divert attention from the gross human rights violations in the Valley”.

(With Agency inputs)