ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Kissan Wing on Sunday expressed shock and concern on behalf of the farming community over the government’s “continuous and mysterious silence” regarding Indian water aggression.
In a statement issued here, PTI Kissan Wing’s Central Information Secretary Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich called upon the federal and provincial governments to immediately initiate diplomatic and legal measures to resolve this critical issue.
After a special meeting chaired by PTI’s Kissan Wing Organiser Sheikh Waqas Akram, the party’s spokesman said India was diverting the waters of the Chenab River, “while our government remains a silent spectator.”
He emphasised that the Chenab water happens to be the lifeline of Punjab’s agriculture and that barrages such as Marala, Khanki, Qadirabad and Trimmu entirely depend upon this system. “Any reduction in water supply could devastate millions of acres of agricultural land and severely affect the production of wheat, rice, sugarcane and other vital crops,” he cautioned.
PTI Kissan Wing’s Sadhraich has demanded from the government to immediately raise this issue at the forum of the Permanent Indus Commission and approach international arbitration and global legal forums without delay.
He regretted that India has been continuously violating the Indus Waters Treaty, and that the government must expose these violations before the international community. Sadhraich said that India’s Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel (Link-3) project was not merely a construction project but a part of the systematic water aggression strategy against Pakistan. “If the flow of water from the upper regions of the Chenab is diverted, its consequences will directly impact Pakistan’s agricultural system, irrigation network, underground water reserves and hydropower generation,” he said.
“This is no longer merely an issue of water or agriculture, it has now become a matter of Pakistan’s national security,” he stressed.
