Pakistan urges UN Security Council president to pressure India to restore Indus Waters Treaty

Pakistan on Thursday urged the United Nations to ask India to restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that New Delhi’s “illegal” decision to keep the agreement on hold carries serious humanitarian, peace and security consequences for the region.

The development comes after one year since India put the Indus Waters Treaty on hold following the attack on April 22 last year at Pahalgam in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), in which 26 people were killed by unidentified assailants.

According to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Mission to the UN, the country’s permanent representative, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, handed over a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to the President of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei of Bahrain.

Also read: FO dismisses India’s ‘false narrative’ linking Pakistan to Pahalgam attack

“The letter draws the attention of the Security Council, one year after India’s illegal decision to suspend the IWT, to its serious humanitarian and peace and security consequences,” the statement said.

He urged the Security Council to take cognizance of the situation and call on India to restore full implementation of the treaty, resume all cooperation and data sharing required by the treaty without delay, desist from any form of water coercion and fully comply with its international obligations in good faith.

The statement added that the permanent representative also briefed the President of the Security Council on what he described as India’s “regurgitation of baseless accusations and propaganda” at a time when Pakistan was engaged in mediation efforts to promote regional and international peace and security.

Ambassador Iftikhar further underlined that the “unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute, a long-standing issue on the agenda of the SC, was the root cause of instability in South Asia that needed a just and lasting solution in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the SC and the wishes of the people of Kashmir,” the statement concluded.

The 1960 IWT stands as one of the most carefully negotiated and legally sound transboundary water agreements in modern international law. The treaty, concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, was designed to remove the water from the volatility of politics and conflict and anchor it firmly in law, engineering discipline and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the fundamental principle of pacta sunt servanda: that treaties must be respected in good faith.

Read: Pakistan accuses India of violating the Indus Waters Treaty

At the heart of the IWT is a permanent and unconditional allocation of rivers. Article II grants the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) exclusively to India, while Article III grants Pakistan exclusive rights over the western rivers: Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. This assignment was the founding agreement of the treaty.

India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow limits of Article III(2) of the Indus Waters Treaty, read together with Annexes D and E, which allows limited, non-consumptive uses such as run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects. These permits are subject to strict design and operational restrictions, including watertight limits, prohibition of storage to regulate flow, and prohibition of engineering elements that control water flows into Pakistan.

These safeguards were aimed at protecting Pakistan as a lower riparian and preventing water from becoming a strategic tool. Pakistan’s objections to projects such as Kishanganga and Ratle arise from concerns about excessive ponding, closed spillways and drawdown mechanisms, which it claims violate treaty provisions and could affect downstream flows, particularly during lean seasons.

The dispute entered a more worrying phase in April 2025, when, following a terrorist incident in Pahalgam, India announced that it would leave the Indus Waters Treaty “on hold”.

Read more: India skips IWT case procedure in The Hague

Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Stage II Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab River, a move that violates treaty provisions governing western rivers and infringes on Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.

The unilateral suspension and accelerated approval of upstream projects, including withholding hydrological data, diverting river flows and altering natural regimes, constitutes a deliberate weaponization of water, endangering Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower generation and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Pakistan has clear legal avenues to respond.

International law expressly prohibits the use of water as a weapon against downstream populations, making strict implementation of the IWT essential not only for bilateral stability but also for the integrity of global water governance norms.