ISLAMABAD: An Indian delegation will be in visit in Pakistan for a three day meeting of to the via the Permanent Commission of the Indus on March 1, Pakistani officials said on Monday.
The Indus Standing Commission will hold its annual meeting in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad from March 1 to March 3, according to Ehsanullah Shahzad, a deputy director at the Pakistani ministry of Water resources.
“The agenda is in definition phase. The delegation will be composed of ten members, as we were told by the Indian side for 117th Permanent Meeting of the Indus Commission “, Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah, Commissioner of Pakistan for Indus Waters said. Shah it will be leading the Pakistani side during the three-day interviews.
Discussions are likely to be focused on Pakistan’s objections to Indian hydroelectric projects namely Pakal Dul (1,000 MW), Lower Kalnai (48 MW) and Kiru (624 MW) in Chenab basin in Jammu and Kashmir and a few small hydroelectric projects in Ladakh.
In recent years, India has started ambitious irrigation plans and construction of many dams upstream, saying its use of upstream water is strictly in line with the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), signed between the two countries in 1960. Pakistan opposed some of these projects claim to violate the treaty brokered by the World Bank on the sharing of the Indus waters, on which 80 percent of its irrigated agriculture depends.
Under the IWT, India has been granted the right to generate hydroelectricity run-of-River projects on western rivers subject to specific criteria for design and operation. The deal also gives Pakistan the right to object to the design of Indian hydroelectric projects on the western rivers. Pakistan raised objections on the design of these projects.
