Kishanganga Dam Row: Stop Pursuing Water Dispute With India at ICA, World Bank Tells Pakistan
While Pakistan remains firm on settling the matter through arbitration, New Delhi wants to resolve the issue in a bilateral framework, under the watch of a neutral expert.
Islamabad, June 6: The World Bank has recommended the Pakistani government to stop pursuing the water dispute case with India at the International Court of Arbitration (ICA). Instead, Islamabad has been advised to accept India's offer of consulting a "neutral expert".
Almost a fortnight after Pakistan moved the World Bank challenging India's alleged violation of Indus Water Treaty (IWT) by inaugurating the Kishanganga Dam, the institution has refrained from conceding to Islamabad's demand.
World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has asked Pakistan to not to take the matter to ICA, reported Pakistani daily Dawn. A source, cited by the newspaper, claimed the bank has taken cognizance of India's argument. According to New Delhi, the IWT of 1960 has not been violated as the Kishanganga hydro power station is a 'run-of-river' dam which will not deplete the water-level downstream flowing across the border.
Islamabad, however, disagrees with India's views, claiming the project not only violates the IWT, but also depletes the share of Indus water flowing into Pakistan.
Notably, Pakistan had first moved the World Bank seeking the stoppage of Kishanganga hydro power project in November 2016. The bank had decided to appoint a former US chief justice as the arbitrator between the two sides. However, it rescinded it's order in December 2016 and, instead, scheduled secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan on four occasions - in February, April, July and October of 2017.
The meetings failed to yield results. While Pakistan remained firm on settling the matter through arbitration by internationally recognised courts, New Delhi wanted to resolve the issue in a bilateral framework, under the watch of a neutral expert.
"Pakistan believed that acceding to India’s proposal of referring the dispute to neutral experts or withdrawing from its stand would mean closing the doors of arbitration and surrendering its right of raising disputes before international courts. It will become a precedent and every time a dispute emerges between Pakistan and India, the latter will always opt for dispute resolution through neutral experts," an official privy to the matter was quoted as saying by the Dawn.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 06, 2018 11:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).