MILAN: According to an analysis by international writer and legal expert Dimitra Staikou for the Pressenza International Press Agency, India’s decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance after the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terrorist attack has been widely mischaracterized as the “weaponisation of water.” Staikou argues that the treaty was fundamentally a political agreement built on mutual trust rather than a purely legal arrangement.
The analysis states that the treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, required India, as the upper-riparian state, to make significant concessions. Pakistan received exclusive rights over the western rivers, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the basin’s annual flow, while India also contributed financially to Pakistan’s water infrastructure.
Staikou argues that India continued to honour the treaty despite wars, military tensions, and cross-border terrorism. She contends that Pakistan repeatedly used the treaty’s dispute-resolution mechanisms to delay Indian hydroelectric projects, including Salal, Tulbul, Baglihar, Kishenganga, Ratle, Pakal Dul, and Lower Kalnai.
The analysis also attributes Pakistan’s water challenges primarily to domestic factors, including inadequate infrastructure, weak governance, and underinvestment. It cites World Bank findings that poor water management costs Pakistan about 4 per cent of its GDP annually and notes that insufficient storage capacity allows significant volumes of water to flow unused into the Arabian Sea.
According to the report, India sought modifications to the treaty under Article XII(3) in 2023 and 2024, but no agreement was reached. Staikou argues that India’s decision to suspend the treaty after the 2025 Pahalgam attack followed a prolonged strategic reassessment.
India has since maintained that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan takes credible and irreversible action against cross-border terrorism. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Pakistan must “credibly and irrevocably abjure its support for cross-border terrorism.”
Finally, the analysis argues that Pakistan’s heavy dependence on the Indus river system, combined with limited water storage capacity, has heightened the strategic significance of India’s decision. It states that Pakistan has responded by pursuing diplomatic and legal efforts internationally to challenge India’s move. (ANI)
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