ISLAMABAD: Vice President Pakistan Peoples Party and Chairperson Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Senator Sherry Rehman, has said that India’s continued attempt to keep the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in illegal abeyance represents a dangerous departure from international law and the established norms governing transboundary water cooperation.
“Water is life, not a weapon as the lower riparian state, Pakistan views this strategic challenge with the utmost seriousness and by attempting to unilaterally suspend the Treaty, India is moving in the opposite direction of the principles that underpin international agreements on shared water resources,” she said in a statement posted on “X” on Tuesday.
Ms Rehman said such actions undermine not only the integrity of the IWT but also the rules-based international order that India once claimed to champion as a pillar of the postcolonial world and a voice of the Global South.
She warned that India’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric on the IWT marks a dangerous shift away from cooperative water governance. “Public declarations by senior Indian officials on diverting the Chenab River, refusing to restore the Treaty, and denying water to Pakistan are not merely political rhetoric, they carry serious legal consequences,” she added.
Senator Rehman stressed that the IWT contains no provision allowing either party to suspend or terminate it unilaterally.
She noted that UN Special Rapporteurs had affirmed that India’s declaration had no legal effect on the treaty’s continued operation or Pakistan’s rights, while the Permanent Court of Arbitration had repeatedly upheld the treaty’s validity and rejected attempts to justify its suspension.
“The Indus Waters Treaty remains fully in force under international law and there is no legal basis for unilateral suspension, no justification for weaponising water, and no substitute for respecting binding treaty obligations,” she said.
“Pakistan will continue to defend its rights through international legal mechanisms while advocating for cooperation, rules-based governance, and the peaceful management of shared water resources,” she added.
