India has refused to provide Pakistan data about the water level in its dams and expected rains ahead of the crucial monsoon season. According to a report, this spells grave danger for Pakistan in the wake of approaching monsoon season and resultant floods.
Under the circumstances, it would become even more difficult for the Pakistani authorities to take flood-management measures. In this connection, the responsibilities of Pakistan Met Office have increased manifold. Officials of the Water and Power Department said the Pakistani High Commission sought from India forecast data about water flow from dams built on Ravi, Sutlej and Bias, but India declined this request. Sources said the National Disaster Management Authority held an emergency meeting in this regard and expressed concern over the development. After India’s refusal, Pakistan will be totally depending on its radars installed at Sialkot, Lahore and Mangla for rain and flood assessment in order to make preparations for flood mitigations.
On the other hand, a planned meeting between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers next month was postponed, New Delhi said on Tuesday, citing a clash of dates with India’s presidential election. The postponement comes at a time of political upheaval in Pakistan, but Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin stressed that the rescheduling was not a sign of any new tensions between the South Asian rivals.
Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna had been scheduled to travel to Islamabad on July 18 to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. Akbaruddin said India’s presidential election on July 19 had forced the change of dates.
“Obviously we need to reschedule,” Akbaruddin said, pointing out that Krishna was a member of the presidential electoral college which comprises MPs from both houses of parliament and state legislatures. “But please don’t think that a scheduling issue is reflective of substantive problems. There are none,” he told reporters.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided by a heavily militarised Line of Control and which both countries claim in full. With the monsoon session of India’s parliament due to open on July 22, Akbaruddin said the postponed Krishna-Khar talks would most likely be held “in August at the earliest”. He also acknowledged that political events in Pakistan, where the judiciary ousted the prime minister a week ago, would have to be taken into consideration. “Since the original date was fixed, there have been changes we are all aware of in Pakistan and these of course will be factored in,” he said.
The Indo-Pak dialogue, which was stalled following the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, resumed last year with both sides holding a series of meetings on the eight components under the ‘Composite Dialogue’ format, including terrorism, Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and trade. The two countries have already had four segments including terrorism, trade and water in the past few months with two more -on Siachen and Sir Creek- slated for this month as part of the second round of talks. However, the two countries’ foreign secretaries will be meeting for talks next month on July 4 and 5. According to the Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, talks which were scheduled to be held in Islamabad would now be held in New Delhi.
India refuses to provide dam water data to Pakistan
