The World Bank President on Tuesday declared that it would appoint neutral expert on Baglihar dam issue, after studying procedures of the Indus Waters Treaty, which may take another two weeks. The visiting World Bank president, James D Wolfensohn, made the announcement here at a press conference. He said that it would be mandatory for Islamabad and New Delhi to accept the findings of the neutral expert to put an end to the controversy.
He added that World Bank was not guarantor to the Indus Waters Treaty, which has served Pakistan and India well over the years. However, he said, the treaty has comprehensive procedures to resolve the differences between its parties and the World Bank was following the same procedures carefully, meticulously for the appointment of a neutral expert.
He told a questioner that the Bank would neither delay the appointment of the neutral expert nor take years to decide the fate of the controversial Baglihar dam.
Agencies add: The World Bank president said the bank's priority was to ensure the appointment did not further complicate the simmering dispute over the Baglihar Dam.
The process of choosing an expert "is not too overlong, this is measured in weeks and months," Wolfensohn said.
Pakistan asked the World Bank to name a neutral expert to settle the dispute after talks with India over the dam collapsed in January. The bank had brokered the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on which Islamabad's objections are based.
The argument has soured an already shaky year-old peace process between the South Asian nuclear rivals.
"The only thing we want to do at the bank is to make sure that we impeccably follow the rules," the bank chief said. "What I don't want to do is have the process become subject to dispute."
"We try and get them to a point to mediate it among themselves. If they can't, we appoint ... an expert ... who makes the judgement on the facts," Wolfensohn said.
Asked what would happen if either India or Pakistan refused to accept the expert's findings, Wolfensohn said: "The parties have agreed that it (the treaty) is binding, so we will go through the process and then there will be a resolution."
He said the neutral expert's findings would be binding, adding that the issue may take weeks or months to resolve.
"The only thing I can tell you is that this is a process which is time-bound, which will not be delayed by the bank," Wolfensohn said.
Islamabad says it fears the dam on the Chenab river flowing from occupied Kashmir to Pakistan could deprive its wheat-bowl state of Punjab of vital irrigation water and charges it violates the 44-year-old water agreement.
Pakistan is concerned that in the event of another war, India could use the dam to cause flooding or droughts in Punjab, analysts say. India denies all the claims and is continuing work on the hydroelectric project.
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