Bilawal Bhutto issues new warning on implications of Indus Waters Treaty (ANI)
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has issued a fresh warning to India over the repercussions of the Indus Waters Treaty with India after the Pahalgam attack on April 22. He said India was using the river as a “weapon”, adding that it was Pakistan’s “lifeline” and that people living on the banks of these rivers wanted “peace with dignity” and not “surrender”. The agency quoted Bhutto as saying, “Pakistan must speak clearly. The Indus River is not a pressure point. The Indus River is not a bargaining chip. The Indus River is not a weapon that can be placed in the hands of India. The Indus River is the lifeline of Pakistan. Any attempt to turn this lifeline into a noose must be treated as a threat to the survival of our country. This is the message that Pakistan must deliver to India.”He added, “India has not respected its obligations, and using water resources as a weapon is dangerous.”“We want peace, but peace with dignity. We want dialogue, but dialogue under the law. We want coexistence, not submission. So from this symposium, from this city, from this moment, let a message go out. Pakistan will defend its waters, its people, its treaty, its sovereignty, and its future,” he said.This comes a day after Pakistani Climate Change Minister Musadiq Malik warned against “cutting off those hands” that try to “touch our waters.”
Pakistani Information Minister Ataullah Tarar also said: “There is a tap controlled by the prime minister of a neighboring country. He says he will not allow even a drop of water to flow into Pakistan.”The Pakistani leadership’s statements come after India suspended the 1960 water-sharing agreement in the wake of the Pakistan-linked terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said last year that “blood and water cannot flow together,” stressing that the treaty would remain suspended until Islamabad took credible and verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from its territory.