India not responsible for water shortage in Pakistan: Official

Islamabad, Jul 12: India is not responsible for water shortage in Pakistan, a top official here has said while dismissing as baseless reports that India was not observing the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty.

Indus River System Authority (ISRA) Chairman Rao Irshad Ali said that reports in media about India getting more water is nothing but a propaganda.

In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Water and Power chaired by Senator Iqbal Zafar Jhagra in Islamabad, Ali said India was using less than its allocated share under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) signed between the two countries.

The IWT is a water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank (then the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development). The treaty was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President of Pakistan Ayub Khan.

Ali during the meeting on Thursday dismissed media reports that India was not observing the IWT as baseless and said that India was getting less compared to their allocated share of water, The New reported.

Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba, regularly claims that Indian "water terrorism" was responsible for the water scarcity in Pakistan.

PTI