A decision has not yet been made to discard bilateral agreements with India, the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday, one day after the Minister of Defense, Khawaja Asif, affirmed that the 1972 Simla Agreement between the two hostile neighbors was a “dead” document.
In response to media consultations, a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, although the recent actions and statements of India caused internal discussions, Pakistan had not made any formal or conclusive movement to annul any of its bilateral agreements with New Delhi.
“At present, there is no formal decision to terminate any bilateral agreement,” said the official, indicating that existing bilateral agreements, including the Simla Agreement, remain in force.
Read more: ASIF declares Simla’s agreement a ‘dead document’
The clarification occurred one day after the Minister of Defense, Khawaja Asif, during an interview with a private television channel, said that Simla’s agreement had lost its relevance and validity due to the recent unilateral actions of India.
“The Simla agreement is now a dead document. We return to the position of 1948, when the United Nations declared the control line a high line of the fire after the high fire and resolutions,” Asif said. He argued that the bilateral framework agreed in 1972 had collapsed, and future disputes would have to be addressed through multilateral or international channels.
Referring to the First Indo-Pak War and the Alto El Fuego de UN, the minister, the minister affirmed that the steps of India, particularly the revocation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, had undermined the foundations of bilateral participation.
He also questioned the current state of other key agreements, saying: “If the Indo Water Treaty is suspended or not, Simla has already ended.”
In a pointed warning, the Minister of Defense commented on the broader security situation, saying that the threat of conflict with India was still there. “Pakistan does not want war, but if we are imposed, our answer will be even stronger than before,” he warned.
Read more: Simla Agreement 1972: Key points and departure implications
The Simla Agreement, signed in 1972 after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, committed both countries to resolve their disputes through peaceful and bilateral means. The agreement turned the high line of fire into Jammu and Kashmir in the control line (LOC) and forced both sides to refrain from the threat or use of force, while respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of others.
Khawaja Asif’s comments were produced in the context of the recent announcement of New Delhi to unilaterally suspend the Treaty of the Water of the Indo (IWT), followed by unprovoked strikes within the Pakistani territory last month, development that caused increased military tensions between the two nuclear neighbors.
Following the movement of India, the Pakistani authorities reported a strong decrease of 91,000 Cusecs in water flows from India to the Chenab River as the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has continued to issue aggressive statements, which suggests the use of water as a strategic weapon against Pakistan.
Days after announcing the suspension of the treaty, Prime Minister Modi declared that the water that previously flowed to Pakistan would now be preserved for domestic use, stating that Pakistan would no longer receive water from the rivers over which India claims the rights.
