Pakistan accepts that India is not to blame for its water woes

New Delhi

5 April 2010

After raising the pitch over water-sharing in the Indus river basin, Pakistan has

accepted that India is not to blame for its water woes.

In a recent interview to a Pakistani TV channel, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah

Mahmood Qureshi acknowledged that Pakistan's problems are because of its own

wastage and not because of India.

The total average canal supplies of Pakistan are 104 million acre feet and the water

available at the farm gate is about 70 million acre feet.

"Where does the 34 million acre feet go? It's not being stolen in India. It's been wasted

in Pakistan," Qureshi said in the interview.

Pakistan had pushed the water issue to the same level of aggression as Kashmir. As if

on cue, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed had said that there could be a war over water-

sharing between Pakistan and India.

The Pakistan Government raised the issue with the US but it had to draw down after it

became apparent that the issue did not resonate at all in Washington. The Americans

maintained that the water issue needs to be sorted out bilaterally between Pakistan and

India.

India has been consistently saying that Pakistan needs to get its act together instead of

levelling baseless allegations against India.

Most recently, Indian High Commissioner to Islamabad Sharat Sabharwal said the

Permanent Indus Commission should be used more effectively to address the water

problems between the two countries.

Speaking at a function organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations and

Pakistan-India Citizens Friendship Forum in Karachi on Saturday, Mr Sabharwal said,

"New Delhi has no 'storage and diversion canals network' to withhold Pakistan's share

of water, and all claims to the contrary were baseless allegations."

"Of late, it has been alleged in Pakistan that India was responsible for its water shortage.

These claims have nothing to do with reality. New Delhi had provided Pakistan its share

of water even during the wars of 1965 and 1971, and during other periods of tense

relations," he noted.