Attempts to deprive Pakistan of its rightful share of water would have “serious implications” for regional peace and security, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday, in an address regarding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).
The deputy premier was addressing the International Water Symposium convened by the Embassy of Pakistan in Austria in collaboration with the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, according to the Foreign Office (FO).
In his keynote address delivered via video message, Dar stressed that there should be “no misunderstanding” about Pakistan’s resolve to safeguard its rights and interests under the IWT and international law.
“Any attempt to deprive Pakistan of the waters rightfully allocated to it would have serious implications for regional peace and stability,” he said.
Stressing that water was fundamental to human survival, prosperity and environmental sustainability, Dar pointed out that its availability was increasingly determining the stability of relations among states. He added that for countries sharing transboundary river systems, a “permanent interdependence” was created by their geography.
“The fundamental question, therefore, is whether shared waters will be governed through cooperation and agreed legal frameworks, or become instruments of political pressure and confrontation,” he said.
For Pakistan in particular, the deputy premier added, water security was inseparable from food security, as the waters of the Indus River System sustained the lives and livelihoods of over 250 million people in the country.
He highlighted that this water sustained agriculture, food security, energy production, economic development, and life-supporting ecological systems.
“Any attempt to undermine Pakistan’s rights over these waters carries consequences that extend far beyond a bilateral disagreement,” DPM Dar stressed.
The IWT, which Pakistan signed in 1960 after a decade of negotiation, replaced what the deputy premier termed “upstream discretion” with binding legal obligations, establishing a framework of “certainty and predictability” for both countries. This, he said, reflected a fundamental recognition that “waters upon which millions depend must remain insulated from the fluctuations in political relations”.
However, he said, this principle was now being challenged as India had unilaterally placed the treaty “in abeyance” in April 2025, although it contained no provision permitting either party to do so.
He highlighted that on Aug 31, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) had issued its unanimous award on the status of the IWT, ordering India to uphold the treaty and restricting its work on a hydropower project. The PCA had unequivocally confirmed that the treaty “remains fully in force” and that India remained bound by its obligations under it, as there were no grounds justifying its suspension or termination.
“This is an important reaffirmation of Pakistan’s position, as well as a fundamental principle of international law,” Dar stated. “Pacta sunt servanda: agreements must be kept.”
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