India’s move to hold IWT in abeyance breaches international law: experts

ISLAMABAD: Legal experts, diplomats and international researchers have warned that India’s decision to hold the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance constitute a breach of international law and pose serious threats to regional stability and security. The experts expressed these views during a webinar titled “Violation of the Indus Waters Treaty by India”, organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) here Sunday. The panelists cautioned that the move, announced in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and reinforced by the closure of the Baglihar Dam’s sluiced gates on the Chenab River, amounts to the weaponisation of water and sets a dangerous precedent for transboundary rivers across South Asia. According to figures cited during the session, the closure sharply reduced Chenab flows into Pakistan at the Marala measuring point, threatening the livelihoods of tens of millions of farmers in Punjab and Sindh and placing a significant share of regional crops at risk. International law expert Ahmer Bilal Soofi argued that the IWT is a self-standing international instrument containing no provision for unilateral abeyance, suspension, or withdrawal. He said India’s attempt t