Indian minister's comments to 'divert water' are 'empty threats': Deputy PCIW
February 22, 2019
ISLAMABAD: The Deputy Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters (PCIW) on Thursday termed the comments made earlier in the day by India's Nitin Gadkari as "empty threats".
Shiraz Jamil Memon, the deputy PCIW, was responding to Gadkari — India's minister for road transport & highways, shipping & water resources, and river development & Ganga rejuvenation — who had claimed that his "Govt. has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan".
Memon said India did not have the ability or the technology to stop the water or readjust its direction.
Further, in accordance with the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan's eastside neighbour cannot prevent water coming from the Ravi, Satlaj, and Beas rivers into the country, the deputy PCIW added.
The Indian minister's comments on Thursday were perceived as New Delhi resorting to water terrorism when he had announced on Twitter that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led nation would stop water from three rivers from coming into Pakistan.
"We will divert water from Eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. The construction of [a] dam has started at Shahpur- Kandi on Ravi River," Gadkari had written on Twitter.
"Moreover, UJH project will store our share of water for use in J&K and the balance water will flow from 2nd Ravi-BEAS Link to provide water to other basin states," he had added.
However, following up on Gadkari's comments, the Indian government had said he was reiterating a Union Cabinet decision from December 6, 2018, when the construction of the Shahpur Kundi Dam — to reduce the water flow from the Ravi River to Pakistan — was approved.
It was the latest threat in the anti-Pakistan rhetoric coming from across the border since last week's attack in Pulwama area of the Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) that left more than 40 Indian soldiers dead.
