Pakistan on Sunday called on India to immediately reinstate the Indus Waters Treaty, with President Asif Ali Zardari condemning New Delhi’s suspension of the World Bank-brokered pact as a “deliberate weaponization” of shared water resources.
In a message on World Water Day, President Asif Ali Zardari reiterated Islamabad's "strong" condemnation of the unilateral suspension of the World Bank-brokered treaty by India, calling it a "deliberate weaponization of shared water resources."
"India’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance, disrupt hydrological data-sharing, impede agreed mechanisms and undermines both the letter and spirit of a long-standing international agreement that has governed equitable sharing of the Indus river system for over six decades,” he said.
Such conduct, he went on to say, threatens food and economic security, jeopardizes the livelihoods of millions who depend on these waters and sets a dangerous precedent for the management of transboundary resources under international law.
There was no immediate reaction from India on Zardari’s remarks.
In April last year, New Delhi held the IWT in abeyance following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26, blaming it on Islamabad.
Pakistan rejected the claims and said any attempt to suspend its water share will be considered as an "act of war,” noting the treaty could not be unilaterally suspended.
The two arch-rivals later engaged in four days of cross-border armed clashes in May, before U.S. President Donald Trump brokered a cease-fire.
In June 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, noted that the decades-long water-sharing pact does not have a provision for the unilateral "abeyance" or "suspension" and that the court had jurisdiction over disputes under the IWT.
The IWT divided the six rivers of the Indus Basin between the two countries. While India received the three eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi - Pakistan was assigned control over the three western rivers: Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.
Pakistan says India’s planned hydropower dams will cut flows on the river, which feeds 80% of its irrigated agriculture.
