News analysis All-out war avoided, but water spat keeps India-Pakistan tensions on the boil

Islamabad gears up to challenge New Delhi's suspension of treaty over shared waters

- Nirmala Ganapathy

NEW DELHI - India and Pakistan may have just avoided all-out conflict, but water politics continue to brew as Islamabad prepares to challenge New Delhi's suspension of a water treaty, which the former considers an "act of war".

India's decision to put in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) - which Islamabad framed as a move to halt the flow of the Indus River and two of its tributaries into Pakistan - came about 24 hours after a terrorist attack on April 22 killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, in India-held Kashmir.

The terror attack led to an outbreak of hostilities between the two countries amid strikes and counter-strikes until they agreed to a ceasefire, which the US claims to have brokered.

Pakistan has labelled India's move to put the water treaty in abeyance as illegal, while India, being the upstream country, which gives it a geographical advantage, said it is within its rights.

Pakistan is reportedly looking at legal options, including approaching the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice at The Hague, on the grounds that India violated the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an international agreement that regulates treaties among countries.

The Indian media reported that Pakistan's Ministry of Water Resources has also asked for a reconsideration of the suspension in a letter to India's Jal Shakti, or Water Resources, Ministry.

"India has said it (the treaty) will be put in abeyance so it will not be easy for Pakistan to reverse the decision. But yes, it (Pakistan) will use all its channels, especially political and diplomatic channels, for the Indus Waters Treaty," Dr Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the NUS Institute of South Asian Studies, told The Sunday Times.