India-Pakistan Talks on Baglihar dam End in Failure
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk

NEW DELHI (India): The talks between Pakistan and India on Baglihar hydro-electric project ended in failure on Thursday as the dialogue remained inconclusive.

The dam is being constructed by India on Chenab River in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Secretary Water & Power, Ashfaq Mehmood told journalists in New Delhi that India has not accepted Pakistan’s points on the issue. “The talks have not borne any fruit. They have refused to accept our demands and the talks will not continue now”, he said.

Mehmood said Pakistan side has done every bit to ensure compromise but all efforts failed. “We want to bring positive end to the dialogue-process but it didn’t materialise that way”, he said.

He said two sides held six sessions on the issue. “The experts from both sides discussed every point but unfortunately we did not come to any positive end”, he said.

The Future Strategy

Mehmood said this was final round of talks as far as Pakistan was concerned. “Now we are going back and the government will decide the future strategy”.

Indian Secretary Water Resources, VK Duggal while briefing journalists after the talks in New Delhi, said that the talks would continue as the efforts were being made to come to some conclusions.

The two sides extensively discussed the ways and possibilities to reach an understanding and remove differences identified by Pakistan relating to the basic design and level of water storage of the project as per the guidelines of the Indus Water Treaty 1960.

Secretary, Water & Power, Ashfaq Mehmood headed Pakistan’s side at the parleys.

Optimism on a Final Round

It is hoped that there will be a final round of discussions. They will try their best to resolve the issue bilaterally without compromising on the basic principles of the Water Treaty.

Pakistan has consistently made it clear that the 450-mega watts hydro-electric project violates its rights as a lower riparian country granted by the 1960 accord.

The two sides held talks on Tuesday and Wednesday as well without any real indications of success.

The dispute centers on India’s plans to construct the Baglihar Dam over the Chenab River in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Jammu region. The dam is being built on two 450-megawatt phases.

Pakistan says, the dam in Chandrakot in southern Doda district violates the 1960 Indus Water Treaty on river water sharing, one of the nuclear rivals’ most enduring agreements that has held through two wars between the countries.

Islamabad fears the dam could interfere with the flow of water from the Chenab River and deprive it of vital irrigation in Pakistan’s wheat-growing Punjab province. New Delhi says the fears are groundless.

The World Bank-negotiated accord bars India from interfering with the flow of the three rivers feeding Pakistan—Indus, Chenab and Jhelum—but allows it to generate electricity from them.

The first phase of the Baglihar Dam was due to be completed in 2004 but has been delayed by the dispute.

Wullar Barrage

India and Pakistan are also trying to negotiate a solution to another dispute over construction of the Wullar Barrage on the river Jhelum, some 30 kilometers north of Srinagar.

India began constructing the barrage in 1985 but halted it two years later after Islamabad said the construction would affect the flow of Jhelum river water into Pakistan.

While the Wullar Barrage is part of an eight-point agenda chalked out by the rivals to resolve various disputes through a dialogue launched in January 2004, the Baglihar dam is not on the list.

FO Spokesman

Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan talking to VOA expressed the hope that India would respect Pakistan’s just reservations on Baglihar dam according to the agreement, and would make sincere and concrete efforts for resolving the issue.

“Under the Indus Water Treaty, India has certainly got some limited rights while Pakistan has got the right to use the water of Chenab River,” the spokesman said.

“Our stance is that, if the construction of dam project is completed in accordance with its existing specification, it will harm Pakistan’s rights,” he said.

To a question the spokesman said that Pakistan did not agree with India’s point of view that dam was not being constructed with the aim of storage of water.

“We are discussing the issue within the legal limits or technical framework which have been mentioned in the agreement itself,” he said adding its parameters were very clear.

He said the Indus Water Treaty had usually been successful and effective, but the Baglihar dam had put a sign of interrogation on this agreement.

He urged the Indian authorities to suspend construction work on Baglihar dam project unless reconciliation was made between the two sides.

Responding to a question about dispute of Wullar Barrage he said, the issue had not yet been resolved between the two countries, but there was a minor difference.

The construction work on Wullar Barrage has been stopped, he added.

Asked to what extent he was optimistic with regard to the solution of Sir Creek dispute through negotiations the spokesman said, “I believe that India and Pakistan should resolve every issue through negotiations because both the countries are aware of the destructions of war.”

“That is why Pakistan is stressing the need of resolving the disputes with India through diplomatic channels, he added.●