India has rejected the proceedings of the Court of Arbitration (CoA) constituted under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). India has said that it does not accept the legitimacy of this court and will not participate in any of its processes. According to the report of NDTV, the government has said that when India has postponed the Indus Water Treaty itself, then any institution formed under that treaty has no obligation to respond. The Court of Arbitration has scheduled a hearing for February 2-3 at the Peace Palace in the Netherlands. Also, an order has been given to present ‘Pondage Logbook’ documents related to Baglihar and Kishanganga Hydro Power Projects of India. India has refused to respond to these orders. The court asked India to present the records. The court said in its order dated January 24, 2026 that if India is not present, Pakistan will give arguments alone in the hearing. After this, on January 29, the court asked for operational records of Baglihar and Kishanganga projects from India. The court has warned that if the documents are not found, it can draw ‘adverse inference’. It was also said that India’s decision to suspend the treaty does not affect the jurisdiction of the court. India says that the current dispute is technical and should be resolved through neutral experts. Whenever there is a technical dispute regarding the water of Indus River, arrangements have been made for neutral experts to resolve it. This provision is already fixed in the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). Neutral expert is not a court. He is an independent and neutral technical expert who provides opinion on technical questions related to water. In which cases does the neutral expert intervene? India had suspended the Indus Water Treaty last year. The Indus Water Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960. India had suspended this treaty after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April. There are a total of 6 rivers in the Indus river system – Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. The area along their banks is spread over about 11.2 lakh square kilometers. Of this, 47% land is in Pakistan, 39% land is in India, 8% land is in China and 6% land is in Afghanistan. About 30 crore people from all these countries live in these areas. Even before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the dispute over sharing of river water had started between Punjab of India and Sindh province of Pakistan. It was signed between India’s PM Nehru and Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan in Karachi on 19 September 1960. It is called Indus Water Treaty or Indus Water Treaty. Impact on Pakistan due to postponement of Indus Water Treaty: 90% of the agricultural land in Pakistan i.e. 4.7 crore acres area gets water for irrigation from the Indus river system. The agriculture sector contributes 23% to Pakistan’s national income and supports the livelihood of 68% of rural Pakistanis. This is affecting the common people as well as power generation in Pakistan. According to reports, annual electricity production may decrease by 30% to 50%.
Source link
[ad_3]
