Pakistan Urges India to Immediately Restore Indus Water Treaty

Pakistan has urged India to "immediately" restore the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in accordance with international obligations.

In a message on World Water Day, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari reiterated Islamabad's "strong" condemnation of India's unilateral suspension of the World Bank-brokered agreement, calling it a "deliberate use of shared water resources as a weapon."

"India's decision to suspend the agreement, disrupt hydrological data exchange, hinder the agreed mechanism, and undermine both the content and the spirit of the long-standing international agreement that regulates the equitable sharing of the Indus river system for more than six decades," he said. reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Monday, March 23.

Such behavior, he continued, threatens food security and the economy, endangers the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on these waters, and sets a dangerous precedent for the management of transboundary resources based on international law.

There was no immediate reaction from India to Zardari's statement.

In April 2025, New Delhi suspended the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) following an attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people, and blamed Islamabad for the attack.

Pakistan rejected the claim and said any attempt to suspend its share of the water would be considered "an act of war," noting the agreement could not be suspended unilaterally.

The two hostile countries then engaged in a four-day cross-border armed clash in May, before US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire.

In June 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, noted that the decades-old water-sharing pact had no provision for "suspension" or "temporary cessation" unilaterally and the court had jurisdiction over the dispute under the IWT.

IWT divides six rivers in the Indus Basin between the two countries. While India receives three rivers in the east - Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi - Pakistan is given control over three rivers in the west: Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab.

Pakistan says a planned hydroelectric dam by India will reduce the flow of the river, which supplies 80 percent of Pakistan's agricultural irrigation needs.