Punjab Assembly speaker rejects unilateral suspension of Indus Waters Treaty

Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said the Indus Waters Treaty is an international agreement whose status, and any action relating to it, must be determined under international law and established principles, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Khan said a unilateral suspension of the treaty was unacceptable. APP's report of the remarks ran to a single paragraph and did not say where or when he spoke, or whether he was addressing the Punjab Assembly.

Dunya News reported that the attorney general said Pakistan will continue its legal fight with India over the Indus Waters Treaty. The channel's report did not give the full text of his statement and did not say where he spoke or what stage any proceedings have reached.

Neither report identified the specific action that prompted the two statements, and neither named the party Khan was referring to when he described a suspension of the treaty.

The treaty was signed in 1960 and divides the rivers of the Indus basin between Pakistan and India. It stayed in force through wars between the two countries and sets out a mechanism for settling disputes over water shares. Under its terms the two sides exchange annual information on river flows and cannot divert water from the rivers allotted to the other.

Pakistan's position has been that the treaty can be changed only by agreement between the two governments, not by one side acting alone. Khan's remarks rest on that principle: that a single party cannot set the agreement aside and have the consequences recognised.

Neither APP nor Dunya News said which court or tribunal the attorney general was referring to, or when the legal proceedings would next be heard.