By Muhammad Luqman
The annual meeting of Indus Water Permanent Commission that was scheduled to be held in Indian capital New Delhi on March 31 , has been deferred for indefinite period.
India had requested Pakistan to defer the meeting between their Indus Commissioners in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner, Syed Mehr Ali Shah said on Sunday.
“While considering the request of ICIW under Article VIII (10) of the Indus Waters Treaty, the annual meeting of the permanent Indus commission has been postponed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be held when the situation will be improved,” he explained.
Indus Commissioners of India and Pakistan are supposed to hold meeting by March 31 every year, according to the Indus Waters Treaty signed between the South Asian neighbours.
Under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty, “the Commission shall meet regularly at least once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan.”
The last meeting of the Commission was held in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore in August 2018.
On February 13, India’s Indus Commissioner, P.K. Saxena had invited his counterpart Syed Mehr Ali Shah to hold the annual meeting of Permanent Indus Commission in the second half of March and requested for the proposed agenda.
On March 12, the Pakistan commissioner accepted India’s invitation, and agreed to meet his Indian counterpart in the last week of the month.
However, with the World Health Organisation declaring COVID-19 as pandemic on March 11, India proposed to “defer this meeting for some time .
There is also a nationwide lockdown till mid-April, in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has killed over 21,293 people globally.
The Indus Waters Treaty 1960, which settled the sharing of the Indus basin waters between India and Pakistan, is internationally regarded as an example of successful conflict-resolution between two countries.
