Settlement of water dispute with India: Govt to provide Rs153m against court fees

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to provide Rs153 million for payment of court cases fee for the settlement of the dispute with India under the Indus Waters Treaty.

The decision to this effect was taken by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet by approving the technical supplementary grant (TSG) in favour of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The ECC meeting was informed by the Ministry of Water that the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960, provides a mechanism for sharing of waters of the Indus System of rivers between India and Pakistan. The Treaty gives India rights over the waters of the three Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Chenab and Beas) and Pakistan on the western rivers (Indus, Jehlum, Chenab).

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The treaty also allows India to use the waters of the western rivers for irrigation of a specified area and for non-consumptive use like navigation, drinking water and power generation but such uses are subject to limitation on design, construction, and operation.

Pakistan and India disagree on the interpretation of certain provisions of the treaty governing the design of run of river hydroelectric plants. In this regard, there exists an ongoing dispute pertaining to two Indian hydroelectric plants namely, Kishenganga (330MW) and Ratle (850 MW) in Jehlum and Chenab basins respectively.

Both plants violate various design parameters of the treaty including those relating to pondage, intake, sediment outlets, spillway and freeboard and as per provisions of the treaty for settlement of dispute, formal proceedings of the court of Arbitration (CoA) in parallel with the Neutral Expert under the above-stated matter have commenced and the first hearing of the CoA and the neutral experts were held on January 27-28 and February 27-28 2023 respectively at the peace palace in the Hague, the Netherlands.

The meeting was further told that the expenditure to be incurred in respect of the case includes payment of fee of the CoA, fee of the neutral experts proceedings, and fee of Pakistan’s external legal team for the case. This expenditure is being met from the head of current invisible against the available budget of Rs810 million of the office of Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters.

The ECC was further informed that out of the total budget of Rs821 million, an amount of Rs653 million has been utilised, thereby, leaving a balance of Rs167 million and against the available balance, the external legal team has raised invoices of $1.079 million and Great Britain Pound (GBP) 6,386, which are pending with the office of Pakistan Commission of Indus Waters, since April 6, 2023 due to non-availability of funds.

As per the letters of engagement with the external legal team, the invoices are to be paid within 60 days of their generation. Based on prevailing exchange rates, the Pak rupee equivalent of the required amount becomes around Rs320 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023