Pak's foreign office and Indus Water Committee differ over water issues

Lahore/Islamabad, May 31 (ANI): Pakistan's Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah and the Foreign Office seems to have different opinions over the water issues with India.

Talking to media persons before leaving for New Delhi to hold talks on the Kishanganga Dam project, Shah said there have been no violation of the agreement on Ranbir and Partap Canals on part of India, and that it could continue construction of dams on the rivers.

He added that Pakistan was not going to International Court of Justice on the Kishanganga Dam project, as was reported recently.

However, the Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit claimed that there have been many complaints about the violations of treaty by New Delhi.

Basit, in his statement, said India must honour the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty signed between both the neighboring countries.

Pakistan has been opposing the construction of the Kishanganga hydropower project on Ganga River in Kashmir, which is called Neelum upon entering Pakistan.

Pakistan believes that the diversion of waters of 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. he reduced water flow in the Neelum would not yield the required results of the proposed 1.6 billion dollars Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project that has been designed to generate 969 MW of electricity.

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