Talks between India and Pakistan on contentious Wullar Barrage would be held here on June 22. The Wullar Barrage is one of the eight issues being discussed under the Composite Dialogue process. The talks were earlier scheduled on April 18 and 19 but were deferred at the request of Indian Water Secretary J Harinarayan.
Later, India wanted talks to be held on April 25-26, but the request was turned down by Islamabad citing preoccupation with preparing case for oral hearings conducted by the World Bank appointed Neutral Expert Raymond Lafftie on Baglihar in London.
Secretary Water and Power Ishfaq Mahmood would lead Pakistan delegation. Besides the water secretary, Indian delegation would include legal advisers, design engineers, commissioner of the Indus Water Treaty and officials from the Foreign Office. Pakistan has from the very beginning opposed work on the Wullar barrage by India, on grounds that it would disrupt the flow of river Jhelum into Pakistan.
The construction of Kishanganga Power Project has added another dimension to the issue of Wullar barrage. According to new design for Kishangaga, though India has given up construction of storage facility, it envisages diverting the River Neelam to Wullar Lake.
Pakistan had rejected the Indian offer to look into the design of the project, as it (Pakistan) wanted the project to be scrapped totally. Pakistan termed the project as a violation of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT).
Pakistan maintains that the project envisaged storing 0.324 million acre feet (MAF) of water, 32 times more than permitted in the treaty. The treaty allows storage of 0.1 MAF of water by India on three western rivers. Pakistan has clarified that though India had submitted a non-paper related to the project in 1994, but there was no agreement.
Comments
Comments are closed.