WEBDESK: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly warned that any attempt by India to cut off Pakistan’s water supply would be seen as an “existential threat,” leaving war as the “only option.”
Speaking in Brussels during meetings with international media and European policy experts, Bilawal condemned India’s move to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), calling it a breach of international law and a “war crime.”
He said that turning water into a political weapon could dangerously heighten tensions and potentially lead to a “full-blown water war” between the two nuclear-armed nations.
“Water is our lifeline, and we will never surrender our rightful share under any circumstances,” he stressed, making it clear that any form of water aggression would force Pakistan to respond militarily in defence of its survival.
These remarks came after India unilaterally put the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty on hold.
The decision followed a terrorist incident near Pahalgam in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) on April 22, which India blamed on Pakistan.
Since then, satellite images and reports have shown unusual water flow changes and dam flushing activities by India on rivers heading into Pakistan. These changes have raised serious worries about the water supply to Kharif crops in Pakistan.
Bilawal pointed out that Pakistan would never act aggressively and they would take international agreements very seriously and be willing to engage in talks.
On the global scene, he urged the world community to apply the same international standards in South Asia as it applies to the rest of the world and that a nuclear crisis may occur should the global community neglect the situation.
Pakistan has reached out to India several times, seeking a return to dialogue and urging a reversal of the treaty’s suspension.
However, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar is reported to have said that the decision will not change “until Pakistan credibly and irreversibly ends cross-border terrorism.”
The Indus Waters Treaty, mediated by the World Bank, had for decades remained intact even through times of war. Its current suspension has added a serious new layer to already strained India-Pakistan relations.
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