The Indus Waters Treaty: Correcting the record, preserving the law

On May 9, 2026, Malay Mail published a two-part article by former Indian Commissioner for Indus Waters P.K. Saxena, titled “Indus Waters Treaty: Asymmetric obligations, unequal concessions and Pakistan’s weaponisation”. The article tried to do more than criticise Pakistan. It sought to recast the Indus Waters Treaty as a historical injustice to India, to portray Pakistan’s use of Treaty procedures as obstruction, and to defend India’s decision to hold the Treaty in “abeyance” as a legitimate correction of an allegedly unequal bargain. When such an argument enters the public domain, it carries institutional weight even when formally described as personal opinion. For that reason, the record should be corrected carefully, professionally and firmly from Pakistan’s side. Claims versus facts Water treaties survive because facts are kept straight, obligations are not blurred, and unilateral narratives are not allowed to harden into public assumptions. If a former Treaty official presents safeguards as unfairness, dispute settlement as weaponisation, and unilateral suspension as a right decision, silence would risk normalising a view that is legally unsound and strategically dangerous. The Indus Waters Treaty is too important to be left to grievance writing. Saxena begins with a true fact and then draws the wrong conclusion. India is the upper riparian on the western rivers before they enter Pakistan, and Pakistan’s agricultural heartland depends critically on reliable flows. But that is precisely why the Treaty exists. It was not born out of Indian generosity. It was born out of the acute vulnerability created by Partition and the April 1948 canal-water crisis, when East (Indian) Punjab stopped supplies to West (Pakistani) Punjab after expiry of the temporary arrangement. That episode deprived areas of Pakistan of water at a critical agricultural moment and left a lasting fear that upstream control could be used to decide downstream survival. The Treaty replaced upstream