Pak serves legal notice to India over Kishanganga dam construction issue

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has served a legal notice to India concerning the long pending issue of construction of the Kishaganga dam over the river Indus.

The Nation reported a private television channel, as saying that the notice has been sent by the Water and Power Ministry in consultation with the Indus Water commission with an aim to bring the issue before the World Bank’s court of arbitration.

It is worth mentioning here that the notice has been served at a time when Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah is scheduled to visit India on May 29th to participate in the annual Indus Water Commission meeting.

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), inked between India and Pakistan in 1960, provides appointment of a neutral expert by the World Bank as a last option to resolve water related issues between both the countries.

Pakistan has been blaming India for an unsporting attitude during bilateral talks, which were initiated to resolve the impending water dispute.

Pakistan has been opposing the construction of the Kishanganga hydropower project on the Ganga River in Kashmir, which is called Neelum upon entering Pakistan. Pakistan has said that the diversion of the waters of the Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project gets completed.

It also claims that India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert Kishanganga waters to Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)