The Punjab Water Council (PWC) is ready to assist the Indus Water Commissioner in Kishanganga arbitration case against India as Pakistan still has an opportunity to make its case and reiterate its stand on its water rights under the Indus Basin Treaty of 1960.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Friday, PWC President Hamid Malhi said the direction of the Federal Law Minister Ahmar Bilal Soofi to form a permanent Committee to provide legal input and assist to the Indus Water Commissioner in that regard was a timely step which could yield positive outcomes if followed in letter and spirit. He said in compliance of the Partial Award by the International Court of Arbitration on the dispute on the 330MW Kishanganga Project on river Jhelum, both India and Pakistan had to provide further data concerning the impacts of a range of minimum flows to be discharged at the KHEP dam.
In compiling this additional data, the parties are required to incorporate a sufficient range of minimum flows so as to give the Court a full picture of the sensitivity of the river system. These data should be accompanied by full information on the assumptions underlying these analyses, including those for power generation and environmental concerns, and the associated uncertainty in the Parties’ estimates.
In addition, the Court would welcome receiving more detailed information on the estimates already put before it by each party of historical flows at the KHEP dam site, at the Line of Control and at the NJHEP dam site. In light of this decision Pakistan still has opportunity to make its case and reiterate its stand on the issue with reference to the initiation of the project and the water rights under the Indus Basin Water Treaty of 1960.
