What Pakistan should do next

Water has always been used as the ultimate weapon – more powerful than armies, more destructive than bombs. The ancient kings of Mesopotamia understood this brutal truth when they diverted rivers to starve their rivals into submission. 

Today, this age-old tactic is being resurrected in South Asia, where India's manipulation of the Indus River system is slowly strangling Pakistan's lifelines.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, once celebrated as a triumph of diplomacy, has become a noose around Pakistan's neck. India has been playing fast and loose with the agreement, constructing illegal dams like Kishanganga and Ratle that choke off Pakistan's rightful water share. 

The eastern rivers — Sutlej, Ravi and Beas — that once nourished Pakistan's heartland now run dry, their waters stolen upstream. It's a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, with India growing fat while Pakistan's farmers watch their fields turn to dust.

India's recent unilateral suspension of the treaty crossed a red line that cannot be ignored. This is water terrorism of the highest order. By weaponising the Indus system, India is holding 240 million Pakistanis hostage, threatening not just agriculture but the very survival of ecosystems. 

The international community must wake up, as this environmental sabotage is no different from other forms of terrorism. Just as we don't tolerate nuclear blackmail, we cannot accept hydrological blackmail.

The devastation of ecosystems is already visible for those willing to see. Where once the Ravi River sustained vibrant wetlands, there are now only cracked riverbeds. Aquifers that took millennia to form are being drained in years. Farmers who fed the nation are becoming climate refugees in their own land. 

Nature's bounty is being replaced by nature's revenge — dust storms, desertification and ecological collapse. As the Latin proverb warns: "Aqua et terra omnibus communes sunt" (Water and earth are common to all). India's actions violate this fundamental principle of shared resources.

Now is the time for Pakistan to fight back with every tool at its disposal. The legal battle must be taken to the International Court of Justice, where India's violations can be exposed to the world. Diplomatically, we need to build a global coalition of water-stressed nations to counter India's hydro-hegemony. At home, projects like Diamer-Basha must be completed post-haste — there's no time to cry over spilt water when the well is running dry.

The world must accept that India's water warfare sets a dangerous precedent that could come back to haunt other nations. If the international community stays silent now, it will share responsibility for the coming catastrophe. The choice is clear: stand with Pakistan today, or face a parched and unstable South Asia tomorrow.

The hour is late, but not too late. With decisive action, Pakistan can turn the tide against India's water terrorism. But the window is closing fast. When history judges this moment, will the world have stood by as India turned rivers into weapons? Or will it have defended the fundamental right of all people to the water that sustains life? The answer will determine the fate of millions.

It is foolish for India not to smell the nation's resolve through the DGISPR's address in Peshawar, who delivered an unambiguous message to India: “If you stop our water, we will choke your breath.” 

With this chilling yet poetic warning, he encapsulated Pakistan's zero-tolerance stance against hydrological warfare. The statement serves as both a deterrent and a promise — attempt by India to weaponise water flows will be met with an overwhelming response. This bold declaration reinforces Pakistan's resolve to defend its lifelines at all costs

The four-day conflict of May 2025 will be remembered as the moment Pakistan's armed forces redefined regional power dynamics. India's ill-conceived aggression was met with such a swift and devastating response that it shattered the myth of Indian military invincibility. 

Pakistan's precision strikes, aerial dominance, and impregnable defence repelled the attack and exposed India's hollow claims of superiority. The world watched as a smaller but technologically superior and tactically brilliant Pakistani force outmanoeuvred a lumbering Indian military still clinging to outdated strategies.

This was no stalemate but a decisive demonstration of Pakistan's deterrent capability. India's much-touted Cold Start doctrine lay in tatters, its forces outgunned and outthought at every turn. The message was clear: Pakistan will not be bullied, and any misadventure will exact an unbearable cost. 

While India, true to form, refuses to learn from history — still nursing its wounded pride and spinning defeat into propaganda — the strategic reality has irrevocably shifted. The balance of power in Asia now tilts toward Pakistan, whose credible second-strike nuclear capability, battle-hardened special forces, and cyber warfare prowess make it a formidable foe.

Should India foolishly test Pakistan's resolve again, the outcome will be even more catastrophic for New Delhi. Pakistan's armed forces have proven they can defend the homeland with ferocious efficiency. India would do well to heed this lesson but if history is any guide, its arrogance may yet lead it to another humiliating reckoning. 

The choice is India's: accept the new equilibrium or face consequences that could permanently diminish its standing in the region.

Pakistan's recent diplomatic victories during India's May 2025 aggression have peeled back the curtain on New Delhi's dangerous ambitions. The international community, once hesitant to call out India's belligerence, is finally seeing the ugly reality of Hindutva nationalism — a toxic ideology that threatens not just Pakistan but regional stability as well. Now is the moment to press this advantage and expose India's hegemonic designs in their full, unvarnished truth.

Pakistan's deft diplomacy at the UN, where it rallied OIC nations and global powers to condemn India's ceasefire violations, has created a rare opening. 

The world witnessed India's reckless brinkmanship: unprovoked missile strikes on innocent civilians, inflammatory rhetoric from BJP leaders and the Godi media, and shameless warmongering disguised as nationalism. But this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Behind these provocations lies a darker agenda: the systematic dehumanisation of minorities, state-sponsored Islamophobia, and a revanchist dream of 'Akhand Bharat' that seeks to swallow its neighbours. 

Pakistan must now weaponise the truth, marshalling evidence of India's war crimes in Kashmir, its support for terrorist groups like the RSS, and its blatant violations of international law.

The diplomatic battlefield is where Pakistan can strike hardest. By leveraging forums like the UN Human Rights Council, Pakistan must spotlight India's persecution of Muslims, Dalits, and Christians — atrocities that expose the hypocrisy of its 'largest democracy' facade. 

The recent EU report on India's hate speech epidemic and the US Commission on Religious Freedom's damning findings provide ammunition. Pakistan should also collaborate with international media to document how Hindutva extremism fuels cross-border aggression, drawing direct links between domestic fascism and external adventurism.

Critically, Pakistan must frame India's actions as part of a broader pattern of rogue behaviour — from its water terrorism to its nuclear sabre-rattling — the gruesome state terrorism stories of the Indian regime are spread across Canada, the United States and many other nations. 

The world is waking up to India's true nature; Pakistan must ensure they keep their eyes wide open. As the Latin maxim goes: "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" (False in one thing, false in everything). India's lies about Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, its false flag operations, and its pretended victimhood must all be dragged into the light.

The road ahead is fraught, but Pakistan's May 2025 diplomatic wins prove the tide is turning. By sustaining this momentum — through legal warfare, media campaigns, and coalition-building — Pakistan can finally force the world to see India for what it truly is: not a benign democracy, but a rogue state drunk on supremacist ideology. The truth, as they say, will out. And Pakistan must ensure it does so decisively.

The writer is a climate governance expert. He tweets/posts @razashafqat and can be reached at: [email protected]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in The News