Senate
unanimously adopted a resolution on Monday, calling on the government to
include Pak-India water disputes in all forms of bilateral talks,
including composite dialogue.The ongoing debate on the government policy
was again disrupted halfway, when ANP’s Shahi Syed pointed out lack of
quorum. The sitting was adjourned till Tuesday morning.
PML
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who is also chairman of the Senate
Standing Committee on Defence, noted, while India was choking water flow
to Pakistan, the government appeared in a hurry to grant India MFN
Status. He called for policies based on terms of reciprocity. Mushahid
said deliberate violation of the water treaty was a form of aggression.
He
appealed to the government to wait for formation of a new Indian
government and review the MFN proposal in the newly emerging
scenario.Senators observed that on one hand, India was building projects
in wilful violation of the Indus Water Treaty while on the other,
Pakistan showed lethargy and non-seriousness in taking up these issues
at the relevant global forums.
They called for apprising
friendly countries of the matter and discussing India’s water aggression
internationally.They contended that the treaty allowed India to build
hydro-power projects with a condition that the designs of the same would
be shared with Pakistan.
Legislators on a private members
day said that Pakistan faced two major challenges: one, the menace of
terrorism and two; choking of water by the neigbouring country. Senator
Tahir Hussain Mashhadi chaired the sitting.
Senator Sughra
Imam, who moved the resolution, said that New Delhi continued to
violate the Indus Water Treaty and depriving Islamabad of its due share
of water. In this context, she referred to Kishanganga hydro-electric
project, which would reduce, by 14 percent, flow of water for
Neelum-Jhelum project.
She warned that Pakistan must take
up water-related issues with India before it was too late and things
became extremely serious, as Pakistan’s economy relied on agriculture.
The
senator noted that the fate of agriculture now depended on the timing
of release of water by India and hence Pakistan’s food security faced
serious threat. “Water disputes can lead to potential conflicts in
future,” she cautioned.
She lamented that backchannel
talks were on with India and Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir was also
engaged in talks with his Indian counterpart but there was no mention
of any water-related issue.
Leader of the House Raja
Muhammad Zafarul Haq conceded that water was a very important issue. “It
is Pakistan’s lifeline and no progress in any sector was possible
without it,” he remarked.
He also said that in the past,
unfortunately, Pakistan was not represented properly in handling water
disputes with India and this cost the nation dearly. Water was now part
of the composite dialogue with New Delhi, he informed. He insisted that
past mistakes should not be repeated in future.
Senator
Karim Ahmad Khawaja pointed out what was appearing in newspapers did not
reflect that water issues were also part of the talks with India,
whereas dams and other projects were being constructed on the other side
and stealing Pakistan’s water share.
Haji Muhammad Adeel
claimed all the representatives from one province struck an agreement in
1960 with India which brought into dividing River Indus that purely
belonged to Pakistan and on parity basis, three rivers went to India
instead of two and a half to each side.
Senator Talha
Mehmood said future wars would be on water. He stated Pakistan was an
agriculture-based country, whereas India was building dams in negation
of the water treaty and said if Pakistan continued taking these issues
lightly, the nation would face starvation. “Water issue is a bomb. No
one here is focusing on it. Water control is in India’s hands and it can
cause floods and drought at will,” he said.
In response
to a motion by Senator Farhatullah Babar on LNG import, Minister for
Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that no
contract was signed so far with regards to LNG and no price of it had
been fixed too.
However, he said the government intended
to import gas on minimum possible price. He strongly rejected
speculations in this connection. The minister said that gas would be
available at market price and even below it. He also held out an
assurance the process of LNG import would be transparent.
About
linking of gas to crude oil, he said that it was the only benchmark and
all contracts were done on this arrangement. Regarding Iran-Pakistan
gas pipeline project, he said they had conveyed to the Iranian
authorities that the realisation of the project was linked to lifting of
the international curbs on Iran.
Opposition senators
Farhatullah Babar and Mushahid alleged that the government was going for
LNG import from Qatar at an exorbitant price and insisted on looking
for other ways to meet Pakistan’s energy needs.
