Geneva: Calling the Indus Waters Treaty “outdated” and unsuited to present-day realities, India strongly rebuked Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), asserting that a country which continues to sponsor terrorism cannot expect the benefits of cooperation founded on goodwill and friendship.
Speaking during India’s right of reply at the 62nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, Anupama Singh, rejected Pakistan’s allegations against India and criticised Islamabad’s repeated attempts to raise bilateral issues at international forums.
“Our position on the Indus Water Treaty is well known. It defies logic that a state which exports terror as an instrument of policy continues to demand the privileges of cooperation predicated on goodwill and friendship. It is equally undeniable that the treaty is now outdated. No technical arrangement can remain frozen in time while the world around it is transformed. A treaty negotiated in 1960 cannot be treated as a perpetual entitlement which is insulated from accountability, detached from present-day realities and untouched by the profound changes of the past six decades,” Singh said.
Following the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 individuals were killed, India held the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance, “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.”
As per the Central government, Pakistan is heavily dependent on the Indus river system for 80 per cent of its 16 million hectares of agricultural land and 93 per cent of its total water use.
Anupama Singh further remarked that Pakistan should focus on addressing its internal challenges rather than making claims against India.
“Instead of coveting Indian territories, Pakistan would serve itself and its people far better by putting its own house in order. Its seasonal theatrics in this council have long outlived any novelty,” she added. She also sharply criticised Pakistan’s record on terrorism, describing it as a “Frankenstein state” that nurtured extremist groups and later faced the consequences of those policies.
“This is the country where the sitting Defence Minister boasts of hosting, training and deploying terrorists as a state policy, and yet Pakistan calls itself a victim of terrorism, indeed a paradox which only Pakistan could sustain. It is a living example of a Frankenstein state, which is shocked when its own monster bites back,” Singh had said.
The Indian diplomat also rejected references made by Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) regarding J&K. “We categorically reject the baseless and malicious allegations made by Pakistan. We also categorically reject the references to J&K made by the OIC. Pakistan’s propaganda is designed to mask its domestic failures and support for terrorism,” she said.
Reaffirming India’s position, Singh stated that J&K “was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India” and maintained that the only unresolved issue remains Pakistan’s illegal occupation of Indian territories.
India’s intervention at the UNHRC underscored New Delhi’s continued rejection of Pakistan’s allegations while highlighting concerns over terrorism, cross-border hostility and developments in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
(With inputs from ANI)
