PAKISTAN has timely warned the international community that the spectre of nuclear war hovers over South Asia because of Indian moves to stop its share of water under the World Bank-brokered Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
The issue has assumed priority for Pakistan in the backdrop of the recent actions by India on the pretext of the Pahalgam incident and that is why it is being hammered by Pakistan’s diplomatic delegations currently on a visit to important capitals of the world to engage global leadership and the public opinion leaders on the issues involved and their likely implications for regional and global peace and security.
As Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, once again, condemned India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, calling it a “blatant violation” and an act of “water aggression” that will receive a resolute response, PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leading a diplomatic delegation to the United States and other important destinations, cautioned that India was laying the ground for the first nuclear war over water with its actions regarding the treaty with Pakistan.
Addressing a high level meeting on water security, the PM said Indian attempts to weaponize water are intensifying and stressed that the 1960 treaty, being a binding international agreement, does not allow any signatory to exit unilaterally.
The meeting was marked by a unified political front, with all four provincial chief ministers, the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan jointly rejecting Indian threats with the Prime Minister welcoming the development as “a reflection of our collective national resolve to protect Pakistan’s water security.”
The deliberations of the high level meeting, its decisions and the forceful arguments presented by Bilawal during his speech at the Middle East Institute at Washington clearly showed Pakistan will go to any extent to safeguard its water rights.
Bilawal underlined that any attempt to shut off Pakistan’s water supply will pose an existential crisis for the country and that any country on the planet, no matter their size, their strength or their ability, would fight for their survival and fight for their water.
It is in this backdrop that Pakistan is urging the United States and other members of the international community to act with urgency and take a firm stance to not allow India to violate the treaty, adding “you cannot allow this precedent to be set in the Pakistan context, because we’ll fight the first war, but it won’t be the last”.
In fact, despite Pakistan’s appeals for restraints and preference for dialogue to settle all disputes and differences, the Indian leadership is raising the ante because of its jingoistic tones and hurling of threats on Pakistan on baseless assumptions and accusations.
It is because of the irrational attitude of India that Pakistan too took retaliatory steps including the decision that it would exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India, including but not limited to the Simla Agreement, in abeyance.
Though Pakistan Foreign Office clarified on Thursday that no decision has yet been taken to scrap any bilateral agreement between the two countries but a day earlier Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declared that the Simla Agreement was dead for all practical purposes.
He also warned that if India persisted with its aggressive attitude and actions towards Pakistan then the Line of Control (LoC) will revert to a ceasefire line, which was its original status as per the (UN) resolution passed at the time of the 1948 crisis.
As for Indian allegations of terrorism, Pakistan’s track record of launching an all-inclusive war against terrorism of all sorts is well before the entire world.
It is because of Pakistan’s sacrifices and unrelenting war against terror that near normalcy returned to this region and the issue can be sorted out once for all provided there is sincere cooperation by Afghanistan and India as they are fighting a proxy war in Pakistan as part of their own agendas of weakening the country and obstruct its plans to ameliorate the lot of its people.
This issue was also highlighted by Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti during his news conference on Thursday when he stated that India’s intelligence agency RAW is sponsoring terrorist groups “Fitna al Hindustan” to destabilize Pakistan, especially Balochistan province.
Audio recordings of Fitna al Hindustan operatives Shanbay and Rehman Gul were also played for journalists, in which they could be heard exchanging information with their RAW handlers.
The Chief Minister further said that the terrorists responsible for the killing of innocent children in Khuzdar were acting under the instructions of Fitna al Hindustan, with funding and directives provided by RAW.
As against such concrete evidence, the world community is appreciative of the counter-terrorism efforts and contribution of Pakistan to regional and global peace and security.
Pakistan stands vindicated in this context as earlier President Donald Trump appreciated its crucial role and sacrifices in the war against terrorism and notably Pakistan was not included in the proclamation signed by the US President on Wednesday banning the citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States, saying the move was needed to protect against “foreign terrorists” and other security threats.
Giving rationale of the decision, Trump said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbour a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travellers’ identities as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
Non-inclusion of Pakistan in the list means the United States was satisfied with legal and administrative measures undertaken by Pakistan in this regard.
Similarly, as has been pointed out by the Prime Minister, Pakistan’s appointment to several key United Nations Security Council (UNSC) counterterrorism bodies as a matter of great pride and a reflection of the international community’s trust in the country’s counterterrorism credentials.
This is not without reasons as Pakistan had endured over 90,000 casualties and suffered economic losses exceeding $150 billion in its war against terror.
Hopefully, these appointments would strengthen Pakistan’s engagement with the UN’s multilateral counter-terrorism framework and reaffirm its resolve to contribute to global peace and security, enhancing its diplomatic stature.
As against this, India stands exposed before the world as sponsor of terrorism, violator of international law and usurper of the rights of its minorities.
Pakistan has also established its credentials as a peace loving country by sensitizing the world community about dangerous moves of India like suspension of Indus Basin Treaty, use of supersonic nuclear-capable missile during the recent conflict and its tendency to impose wars on its neighbours on the basis of false flag operations, urging the world to play its role for promotion of peace and security in the region.
