India manipulating flow of Indus River to disrupt Pakistan's crop patterns: minister

• “When water was needed for crop sowing, it was not available.”
• Move aimed at disturbing food security of Pakistan: Malik.
• Says Pakistan responded to India’s requests to renegotiate treaty.

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Musadik Malik has said that India was manipulating the flow of the Indus River system by "holding and releasing, holding and then flooding" to disrupt Pakistan's crop patterns and food security.

In an interview with Bloomberg in London on Monday, Malik noted that “when the water was needed for crop sowing, it was not available” over the past month.

“It is to disturb the crop patterns and the food security of Pakistan,” he said, adding that the government does not yet have estimates for crop damage.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unilaterally suspended the Indus Waters Treaty in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on April 22.

In early May as tensions escalated between the neighbors, the Chenab river’s water flow was cut to nearly 90% below the usual volume that passes to Pakistan, according to Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, spokesman for Pakistan’s Indus River System Authority.

The Times of India had reported that India has been flushing and desilting reservoirs at the Baglihar and Salal hydropower projects on the Chenab, which can disrupt normal flows, and plans other maintenance measures during the treaty suspension.

“Because they don’t have storage dams, they have not been able to materially affect us,” Malik said. “If they start to build the storage dams, it would be deemed as an act of war,” he said, reiterating the administration’s views.

Malik said Pakistan responded to India’s requests over the past year to renegotiate the treaty, as both water-scarce nations face growing pressure from climate change and population growth.

However, he added, India failed to specify which clauses it wanted to discuss.

Speaking about last month’s military clashes between Pakistan and India, the minister said Donald Trump’s administration along with bunch of other countries including the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the UAE were very instrumental in bringing about the ceasefire”.

Malik is part of the Bilawal Bhutto-led delegation tasked with presenting Pakistan perspective on the recent conflict with India to the world and counter New Delhi’s false narrative.

The delegation is currently in London after visiting the United States, and will also head to Brussels.