- Officials say India to receive invitation letter soon to attend WB-mediated meeting in Washington DC
Pakistan on Thursday vowed to carry forward its preparations for the secretary-level meeting in Washington DC on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in April, downplaying the assertion by some Indian media outlets that India may skip the moot.
On Wednesday, the Indian media reported that India was likely to skip the secretary-level moot to be held in Washington DC in April. The announcement about the meeting was made by Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif following a sitting of the Indus Commissioners in Islamabad on March 21.
“I am happy to reveal that talks on the Indus Waters Treaty have been resumed with the efforts of the government of Pakistan. Former US secretary of state John Kerry and the World Bank president played a pivotal role in bringing the two parties to the table,” he had said. The Indian report claimed that Pakistani media had ‘jumped the gun’ when the minister announced that the two countries would hold a three-day ‘way forward’ meeting on the Ratle and Kishenganga projects in April in Washington.
According to the media reports, this proposed meeting would be mediated by the World Bank vice-president. Also, the Indian media had quoted ‘sources’ as saying that there was little possibility of a mediated meeting in the current context between Pakistan and India at this point. “India is yet to receive any formal communication from the World Bank on any such meeting,” it said.
“As far as India is concerned, any disputes or differences would have to be discussed by the Indus Commission, not by a mediated meeting,” the India media reports had suggested. However, a senior Pakistani official, whom Pakistan Today talked to, asserted that India would have received the World Bank invitation now.
“Irrespective of what rumours Indian media have been playing up, we believe that India would attend the Washington meeting. We believe that either India would have received a formal invitation now or they would get it very soon. So the previous media reports would become irrelevant once New Delhi gets a formal invite,” the official said. “We hope India would make up its mind and would attend the meeting,” he said.
When asked to comment over Indian media’s assertion that India had not agreed to halt the Miyar hydroelectric project in the disputed state, the official said that Pakistan never made such a claim. “We never claimed that India had agreed to halt the Miyar hydroelectric project. What Pakistan said was that India has agreed to reengineer the design of Maiyaar hydro plant, withdrawing its previous designs after Pakistan had made objections on it in the previous meetings of the commission,” the official said.
Another official, when approached, said that perhaps India wants to entrench its stance on the Indus Water Treaty before going to talks in Washington. “Perhaps India aims at entrenching its stance so as it could leverage it for the upcoming moot. Perhaps, this is why they are not denying it officially and rather sources are being quoted in media. But we are happy if they want to do some public posturing before joining the meeting,” the official said, laughing off the Indian media claims of skipping the Washington moot.
Arshad H Abbasi, the eminent expert on water issues, told Pakistan Today that the Indus Water Treaty had become an industry for inept officials. “It is meaningless for Pakistan whether India attend the Washington meeting or not. Though meetings on Baglihar Dam were held in Paris, London, Geneva and Washington but at the end of the day, Pakistan got nothing out of these meetings, although the officials made hey with these trips,” he maintained.
Abbasi said that Pakistan has already lost its case on Kishenganga in the court of arbitration due to the incompetent officials. “I demand for the establishment of a tribunal to investigate and fix responsibility against those who have represented Pakistan in the case. Where is Kamal Majidullah and Shumaila Tariq of this world. They are responsible for Pakistan’s debacle in the court of arbitration,” he added. On Ratle Dam, he said that Pakistan needs to quantify the material damage first.
“I know the capacity of the NESPAK officials. These officials lack capacity in designing with such mega dams and they don’t have experience in designing the hydropower projects. When you don’t know how to design a project, you can’t raise objections to the designed projects,” he added. He said that the lack of proper homework, capacity to deal with the job and lust for pleasure trips had led the country towards such debacles.