Pakistan on Wednesday urged India to engage with it constructively within the framework of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), saying the decades-old pact must be upheld in “letter and spirit,” reported PTI.
According to the report, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi made the remarks days after India rejected an order by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) setting aside centre's decision to suspend the treaty with Pakistan.
Andrabi said the court had reaffirmed that the IWT remained “fully enforced and binding”, adding that Pakistan would take all possible measures to ensure the decision was implemented.
“Pakistan is committed to implementing the treaty in letter and spirit in accordance with its language and provisions,” he said.
He added that Islamabad would continue to urge India to reciprocate by upholding the treaty “in letter and spirit” and in accordance with its full legal and documented provisions.
India put the IWT in abeyance following the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year that killed 26 civilians, as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures against Pakistan.
Pakistan approached the PCA in The Hague in March this year seeking a determination on the status of the treaty, effectively challenging India’s decision.
India, however, has never recognised the “existence in law of this illegally-constituted and so-called Court of Arbitration”. New Delhi has maintained that the establishment of the arbitral body itself constitutes a “grave violation of the Indus Waters Treaty”.
(With inputs from PTI)