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

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

The development comes after a year since India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty following the April 22 attack last year in 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 denies 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 peace and security, as well as humanitarian, 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 without delay all cooperation and data sharing mandated by the treaty, renounce all forms of coercion in water matters and comply fully and in good faith with its international obligations.

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

Ambassador Iftikhar further highlighted that “the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute – a long-standing SC agenda item – was the root cause of instability in South Asia which required a just and lasting settlement in accordance with the relevant SC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people”, the statement concluded.

The 1960 IWT constitutes one of the most carefully negotiated and legally sound transboundary water agreements in modern international law. Concluded between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, the treaty aimed to steer water away from the volatility of politics and conflict and firmly anchor it in law, technical discipline and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the fundamental principle pacta sunt servanda – that treaties must be honored in good faith.

Read: Pakistan accuses India of violating the Indus Waters Treaty

At the heart of inland navigation is a permanent and unreserved allocation of rivers. Article II gives Pakistan exclusive rights to the eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – exclusively to India, while Article III gives Pakistan exclusive rights to the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. This distribution was the founding agreement of the treaty.

India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow confines of Article III(2) of the Indus Waters Treaty, read with Annexes D and E, allowing limited, non-consumptive uses such as run-of-river hydroelectric projects. These authorizations are subject to strict design and operational constraints, including limits on ponds, a ban on storage to regulate flows, and a ban on engineering features to control water flows to 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 stem from concerns over excessive ponding, gated spillways and drawdown mechanisms, which it says violate treaty provisions and could affect downstream flows, particularly during lean seasons.

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

Read more: India ignores IWT case proceedings in The Hague

Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Phase II hydropower project on the Chenab River, an action that violates treaty provisions governing the Western Rivers and undermines Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.

The unilateral suspension and fast-track approval of upstream projects, including the withholding of hydrological data, diversion of river flows and modification of natural regimes, constitutes a deliberate weaponization of water, jeopardizing Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower production and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law and Article 51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan has clear legal avenues to respond.

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