Pak will go to war if India denies it water: Bilawal

Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday said his country would go to war with India if it denied Islamabad a fair share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).

India had put in abeyance the 1960 agreement soon after the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 26 people were killed.

Home Minister Amit Shah recently announced that India would never restore the accord. Bhutto’s comments came two days after the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, led by Ishaq Dar, criticised what it called Shah’s “brazen disregard” for international agreements.

Bhutto, in a speech in the Pakistani Parliament, rejected the Indian decision to keep the IWT in abeyance and threatened to get Pakistan’s share of water through a war.

“India has two options: share water fairly, or we will deliver water to us (Pakistan) from all six rivers,” he said referring to the six rivers of the Indus basin.

“The IWT is not in abeyance, it is binding on Pakistan and India, but the threat of stopping water is illegal, according to the UN charter,” Bhutto was quoted as saying by a news agency.

Bhutto, who heads the Pakistan Peoples Party, threatened that if India decided to follow through on the threat, “we will have to wage a war again”. The former Foreign Minister also highlighted the importance of talks and cooperation, especially in counter-terrorism efforts.

“If India and Pakistan refuse to talk, and if there is no coordination on terrorism, violence will only intensify in both countries,” Bhutto said.

He claimed that during his diplomatic visits to the UK and European nations as the Foreign Minister, it was evident that India had lobbied hard to reverse Pakistan’s progress on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) front.

“At a time when Pakistan had successfully moved from the FATF grey list to the white list, India made every effort to drag us back to the grey list using false narratives and diplomatic pressure,” he claimed.

Bilawal said Pakistan succeeded in raising the issue of Kashmir on the world stage and President Donald Trump had spoken in favour of mediation on Kashmir.

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