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.
No comments:
Post a Comment