Court hears Pakistan’s challenge to Indian hydro projects on Indus, Jhelum, Chenab rivers
THE HAGUE
The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitrationhas said that India did not respond to an invitation to participate in a hearing and did not appear in proceedings over a case related to the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) dispute with Pakistan.
The IWT of 1960 stands as one of the most carefully negotiated and legally robust transboundary water agreements in modern international law. Concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, the treaty was designed to remove water from the volatility of politics and conflict and to anchor it firmly in law, engineering discipline and neutral dispute resolution.
It is a binding international instrument governed by the foundational principle of pacta sunt servanda — that treaties must be honoured in good faith.
In a press release issued a day ago, the court said it concluded its hearing for the Second Phase on the Merits on February 3 in an arbitration initiated by Pakistan against India pursuant to Article IX and Annexure G of the Indus Waters Treaty. “India did not respond to an invitation to participate in the hearing and did not appear,” it added.
Pakistan is contesting India’s hydroelectric designs and projects on the Indus basin rivers, arguing that New Delhi has exceeded the limits set under the treaty governing shared water resources.
According to the press release, Pakistan requested the court address the interpretation and application of the treaty to certain design elements of run-of-river hydro-electric projects that India is permitted by the treaty to construct on the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab rivers and their tributaries before those rivers flow into Pakistan.
