Pakistan plans legal action over India's suspension of Indus Waters Treaty

Pakistan is preparing international legal action over India’s suspension of Indus Waters Treaty, a government minister told Reuters, as tensions intensify between the neighbours following an attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Aqeel Malik, the Minister of State for Law and Justice, told Reuters that Islamabad was working on plans for at least three different legal options, including raising the issue at the World Bank - the treaty’s facilitator.

It was also considering taking action at the Permanent Court of Arbitration or at the International Court of Justice in the Hague where it could allege that India has violated the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, he said.

“Legal strategy consultations are almost complete,” Malik said, adding the decision on which cases to pursue would be made “soon” and would likely include pursuing more than one avenue.

India last week suspended the World Bank-mediated Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 after the attack in IIOJK, saying it would last until “Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism”.

Islamabad denies any involvement in the attack in which 26 people were killed.

India claims two of three assailants it has identified were from Pakistan. Islamabad has said “any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan … will be considered as an act of war”.

Pakistan has also suspended all trade with India and closed its airspace to Indian airlines.

Malik added that a fourth diplomatic option that Islamabad was considering was to raise the issue at the United Nations Security Council. “All the options are on the table and we are pursuing all appropriate and competent forums to approach,” he said.

“The treaty cannot be suspended unilaterally and cannot be held in abeyance, there is not (such a) provision within the treaty,” said Malik.

Kushvinder Vohra, a recently retired head of India’s Central Water Commission said: “There are very limited options (for Pakistan) … I can say that there are solid grounds for us to defend our (India’s) action.”

Government officials and experts on both sides say India cannot stop water flows immediately, because the treaty has allowed it to only build hydropower plants without significant storage or dams on the three rivers allocated to Pakistan.