India to participate in Permanent Indus Commission meet in Lahore
March 03, 2017 08:44
India is set to participate in the meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission, scheduled to be held in Lahore in March.
Pakistan forwarded the invitation to India to resolve the Indus Water Treaty, sources say.
The Permanent Indus Commission is a bilateral commission of officials from India and Pakistan, created to implement and manage goals of the Indus Waters Treaty.
The development comes after the relations between the two nuclear-armed nations plummeted following the Pathankot terror attack that took place in January last year.
Pakistan has firmly stated that it will not accept any alterations or changes to the IWT after India had said that it is ready to engage in further consultations with Islamabad on the matter of resolving current differences over the Kishenganga and Ralte projects under the treaty.
Islamabad has argued that India was buying time to complete its two disputed water projects and then insisting that since the project was already complete, it could not be modified.
Pakistan is raising its objection to building of the Kishanganga (330 megawatts) and Ratle (850 megawatts) hydroelectric plants by India saying that it violates the provisions of the treaty.
Tensions increased over the water dispute when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year threatened to block the flow of water into Pakistan. The World Bank had earlier asked both the countries to consider alternative ways to resolve their disagreements over the Indus Water Treaty Dispute 1960.
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