Our Announcements

Not Found

Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.

Archive for category INDIA’S VIOLATION OF INDUS WATER TREATY

Appeasement taken as sign of docility

 
 
 
 

Appeasement taken as sign of docility

Asif Haroon Raja

Nawaz Sharif addressed the UN Assembly on 27th and in that he jogged the memory of the UNSC by reminding it of its responsibility to resolve the 66 year old Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions. He also called upon the international community to play its due role for the realization of the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people and let them decide their future through a plebiscite organized by the UN. Nawaz thus rekindled the age-old stance of Pakistan, which Gen Musharraf had gratuitously sabotaged in 2003 to please India and USA. Nawaz’s statement on Kashmir was not to the liking of India. It had been lobbying hard to restrain him from re-enacting the UN resolution stance smothered by Musharraf.

Known for doing its homework, India on one hand had intensified diplomatic efforts to woo Nawaz after he took over power in early June 2013, and at the same time prepared ground to paint Pakistan and freedom movement in Kashmir in black through carefully planned false flag operations and hate offensive. The first of its kind was the deliberate heating up of Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir in early January 2013. The incident of beheading of two Indian soldiers allegedly by Pak soldiers was drummed up and dragged on for quite some time. Hostile reaction to the death of Indian RAW agent Sarabjit Singh in April 2013 in the form of killing of Pakistani national Sanaullah Ranjay in Jammu jail tensed Indo-Pak relations. The LoC was one again heated up in August on the pretext that five Indian soldiers had been killed deep inside Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) by Kashmiri terrorists dressed in Pak uniforms and backed by Pak Army.

From August 2013 onwards, hardly a day has passed when Indian occupation forces didn’t violate 2003 peace agreement in Kashmir by resorting to unprovoked firing and killing civilians and soldiers. Just a day before Manmohan’s address in the UN Assembly on 28th September, another terror attack was stage-managed on a military target in Samba. Samba incident, coupled with previous incidents equipped Manmohan with sufficient grist to lambast Pakistan during his speech in the General Assembly. He dubbed Pakistan as an epicenter of terrorism and accused it of abetting terrorism in IOK. He also repeated India’s age-old stance that Kashmir is the integral part of India.

Manmohan continued with his laments when he met President Obama on 29 September. He had nothing else to talk except for bad mouthing Pakistan and painting India as the victim of terrorism. Receptive Obama not only shared his concerns compassionately but also approved his boxful of lies without being given shred of evidence. Manmohan’s invectives were meant to put Nawaz on the defensive during his meeting with him on the sidelines of the UN Session on the 30th. Indian foreign minister added to the disinformation campaign by giving lies-filled interview to anti-Pakistan VOA.         

Musharraf caused greatest damage to the cause of Kashmir by allowing India to fence the LoC, bridling Jihadist groups, pushing aside UN resolutions on Kashmir and suggesting out of box four-point formula to resolve the dispute. However, ZA Bhutto too had harmed the Kashmir cause during Simla talks in 1972 by agreeing to convert ceasefire line in Kashmir, demarcated on January 1, 1949 into LoC and accepting Indian suggested policy of bilateralism. Concept of LoC encouraged India to focus on converting it into permanent border between two Kashmirs at a later date. Bilateralism enabled India to rule out third party intervention. Gen Musharraf was fully geared to sell off Kashmir by agreeing to implement India’s suggestion of making LoC a permanent border and making the border soft so as to allow two-way trade and facilitate movement of Kashmiris across the border. To that end, bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was introduced.  

By early 2007, 90% work had been completed through backdoor diplomacy pursued by Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri and Advisor Tariq Aziz. Sudden eruption of lawyer’s movement after the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar by Musharraf in March 2007, which put Musharraf on the back foot, derailed the process. But for India’s chronic habit of haggling and suspicion, the unholy deal might have materialized by end 2007. Lawyer’s movement proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Kashmiris and Pakistan, but India lost the chance of century to legalize its hold over two-thirds Kashmir. Indian leaders are yearning to re-start the backchannel diplomacy and to pick up threads from where discussion on Kashmir had been abandoned in 2007. Zardari regime made no efforts to remove the stigma of terrorism pinned on Kashmiris or to revive the resistance movement but he didn’t promote Musharraf’s wonky out-of-box concept. 

Nawaz is no less a lover of India than Musharraf and Zardari. Ever since he took over, he has been bending over backwards to win the affections of lame duck Manmohan who will be off the Indian political radar for good after next elections in India due in May 2014. He nostalgically recalls that he had developed deep understanding with Vajpayee. He naively believes that Vajpayee’s historic bus yatra to Lahore in February 1999 had brought the Kashmir dispute to near resolution point, but before the final leap could be undertaken to ink the momentous treaty, Musharraf incapacitated the progress achieved by stepping into Dras-Kargil. He is eager to restart the dialogue with India from where the process broke off in 1999. I reckon, Nawaz has a memory lapse. No sooner Vajpayee had returned to New Delhi, he blurted out that Kashmir is the Atoot-Ang of India and there can never be any compromise on it. Manmohan also reiterated the same stance in his September 28th speech. It implies that the standpoint of the two mainstream political parties on Kashmir is the same.

If so, one wonders why our leaders continue to chase rainbows and hope against hope that India would change its position. Why they have so much faith in composite dialogue which started in 1997? Except for some futile CBMS like people-to-people-contact and trade, no progress could be made on any of the disputes of Kashmir, Siachin, Sir Creek and water. One fails to understand why our leaders are so naïve and myopic to repeatedly come under the magic spell of Indian leaders and get duped? What is their compulsion, and if there is any, why don’t they share it with the people rather than misleading them and leading them up the garden path that friendship with India would not only solve core issues but also make Pakistan prosperous?

If India unscrupulously cooks up stories, engineers false flag operations, insults Pakistan, makes false allegations and threatens Pakistan and whips up war hysteria, why our elected leaders do not pick up courage to call a spade a spade and expose India’s terrorism against Pakistan and massive human rights violations in IOK? Pakistan’s apologetic and defensive policy pursued in the vain hope of appeasing ever belligerent India has proved very costly. It has allowed India to carryout one-sided propaganda and to blame Pakistan for the sins committed by India’s rogue elements against Pakistan. In our quest for peace with India, our leaders have gone an extra mile to please fire-breathing and hate-mongering Indian leaders and in the process have compromised the security, honor and dignity of the country.

Our policy of appeasement is taken as a sign of docility and weakness and exploited. Friendship with India should not be at the cost of losing Kashmir and our dignity and sovereignty of the State. Pakistan will have to make its political, diplomatic and media policies pragmatically offensive to match Indo-US-western-Jewish propaganda spiteful onslaughts duly complemented by segment of our own media.  

The writer is a retired Brig, defence analyst, columnist and book writer. asifharoonraja@gmail.com 

, , , ,

No Comments

PTI : India suffered 9 pc peak power shortage during 2007-12: Economic Survey

 

 

PTI
 
 

India witnessed a peak power shortage of 9 per cent during the five years ending 2012 when over 50,000 MW new generation capacity was created, the Economic Survey said today.

“During the 11th Five Year Plan (2007—12), nearly 55,000 MW of new generation capacity was created. Yet, there continues to be a peak shortage of 9 per cent,” it said.

Peak power shortage is shortfall in generation capacity when electricity consumption is maximum.

The survey said the resources currently allocated to energy supply are not sufficient for narrowing the gap between energy needs and energy availability.

One of the key challenges remain resolving the energy bottlenecks. Further, the country’s excessive reliance on imported crude oil make it imperative to have an optimal energy mix that will allow it to achieve its long—run goal of sustainable development.

As on March 2011, the country’s estimated coal reserves were at about 286 billion tonnes, lignite at 81 billion tonnes, crude oil at 757 million tonnes and natural gas 1,241 billion cubic metre (BCM).

Electricity generation by power utilities during 2012—13 was targeted to go up by 6.05 per cent to 930 billion units.

The growth in power generation during April to December, 2012 was 4.55 per cent as compared to about 9.33 per cent during April—December, 2011.

The estimated hydro potential is about 1,45,000 MW. The total potential for renewable power generation from various sources other than large hydro projects stood at 89,760 MW.

Import dependence on crude oil is projected at 78 per cent while that in coal will be 22.4 per cent by 2016—17, Survey said.

An integrated power transmission grid helps to even out supply—demand mis—matches. The existing inter—regional transmission capacity of 27,750 MW connects the northern, western, eastern and north—easterns in a synchronous mode operating at the same frequency and southern region asynchronously operating in the same mode.

Synchronous inter—connection of the southern region with other regions is expected to be established by April, 2014.

Meanwhile, trading in electricity is enabled through traders and power exchanges that optimises generation resources by facilitating trade and flow of electricity across the country.

It has helped in sale of surplus power by distribution utilities and captive power plants on one hand, and purchase of electricity by deficit firms on the other hand to meet sudden increases in demand, it said.

The capacity addition during the 12th plan period (2012—17) is estimated at 88,537 MW comprising 26,182 MW in the central sector, 15,530 MW in the state sector and 46,825 MW in the private sector respectively.

The capacity addition target for the year 2012—13 was set at 17,956 MW. A capacity of 9,854 MW has been added till December 2012.

, , , ,

No Comments

Dealing with India

Upright Opinion

August 9, 2013

Dealing with India

By Saeed Qureshi

According to the Times of India’s report dated July 15, a member of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation had accused incumbent Indian governments of “orchestrating” the terror attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 and the 2008 Mumbai attack carried out on 26 November 2008.

There is no apparent reason to discard this bombshell information disclosed by an Indian secret service operative. Ostensibly the atrocious aim behind these sinister plots was to project Pakistan as a terrorism sponsoring state and thus antagonize the international community against it.

India had been maliciously harping upon the bogey that the parliament building and Mumbai attacks carried out by the disparate militant groups and Ajmal Kasab band respectively, were sponsored by Pakistan and her intelligence outfits.

This was not for the first time that India had blamed the Pakistan based radical Islamic organizations for Mumbai calamity. Earlier, the Kashmiris freedom fighters were held responsible for the storming the Parliament building in New Delhi in December 2001. Some other similar attacks were also attributed to the Kashmir militants.

 While India bracketed Pakistan government and its intelligence agencies as the accomplices in these activities with the militants, it conveniently forgets that Pakistan has also suffered enormously at the hands of these brutal radicals who treat India and Pakistan at par. They carry out suicide bombing and murderous ambushes to punish Pakistan for its partnership with United States in hunting down the perpetrators of the 9/11 mayhem.

In the aftermath of the parliament building episode, India demanded the unacceptable option of carrying out punitive air strikes on the chosen targets in Pakistan. For a neighbor to ask for such an unusual permission from the United Nations is as weird as it is lethal to the territorial integrity of a sovereign country. There seemed to be more than meets the eye in the Indian call for attacking the militants’ targets within Pakistan.

One would wonder if the Mumbai bloody melodrama was deliberately enacted to achieve the concealed yet coveted objective of having a walk over the territory of Pakistan and Kashmir and to glibly and indiscriminately bomb any place anywhere. In peace times, this untenable demand was made by India against such a neighbor that has gone a long way to normalize bilateral relations in all avenues with her.

At the behest of India,  had  Pakistan been subjected to the UN sanctions, then obviously India would have been free to also curb and crush with full might, the Kashmiris’ uprising against the Indian occupation, now apace for six decades. In that situation Pakistan would be severely constrained to use its army in support of Kashmiris and also to defend its territory from the Indian onslaughts. There couldn’t be better time for India to achieve this agenda as a time, when Pakistan army is bogged down for several years on the Western front and India has become a strategic partner with the United States.

Pakistan has already been under enormous burgeoning pressure from United States for using its armed forces to annihilate the radical Islamic militants in the regions starting from Afghanistan to the extreme periphery of Kashmir.

In the aftermath of these incidents, the call from India to go for the monstrous reprisal in the form of military aerial forays against Pakistan would have been a grievous folly entailing horrific consequences for the region. If India wanted to exploit the Mumbai attacks to squeeze Pakistan and to label it as a terrorism sponsor, then it is as brazen as malicious. But now that charade has exploded on the face of India when her own secret agents are spilling the beans and when as the proverb goes, “the cat is out of the bag”

India wants the same leverage and queer rights that Israel is exercising against the Palestinians, in that she kills, at will, the vulnerable Palestinians indiscriminately. But is Pakistan what Palestine is?

Pakistan is a sovereign state in existence and a member of the United Nations. The state of Palestine is yet to appear and take a physical shape. The kind of rift between Israel and Palestine is anchored on legitimate demand for the statehood of an uprooted people. India and Pakistan are already two independent states resulting from the partition of India via an established international covenant. The incident of Mumbai is no parallel to the deep rooted and historical conflict between Israel and the Palestinian nation.

The 9/11 event is also no match to the Mumbai incident. The 9/11 event is a mega sized act of terrorism and the Mumbai is a much smaller local event. The United States has not been able to conclusively establish the identities of the 9/11 perpetrators. Similarly the Indian government had been far from being candid and unambiguous about the individuals or backdoor abettors actually responsible for the Mumbai carnage or attack on the parliament

But the whole context and narrative of the Indian blame game against Pakistan turns upside down after the submission of the statement by the Indian secret service operative in the Indian Supreme Court. It is for the international community to understand the Indian diabolic designs for staging such clandestine vicious operations and then putting blame on Pakistan.

An objective assessment would lead a dispassionate observer to the conclusion that no matter how much Pakistan stoops low before the Indian conditionalities for peaceful coexistence, India would not relent in asking for more. The reason is that Pakistan has always been a thorn in the side of India. India displayed its historic animus towards Pakistan by dismembering the latter in 1971.

images-8There cannot be a more sublime cause than to go down fighting for safeguarding the national honor and territorial integrity. But if Pakistan surrenders hands down, history will judge Pakistani leaders as spineless betrayers to a country and a nation that was carved out with a dogged spirit for freedom despite a combined opposition and treachery from Indians and the British imperialists.

Let Pakistan fight on all fronts and fight to the last. To procure peace by becoming a protégé and a client state of India is ignominious and must be discarded. It’s time to talk plainly also to the Americans to not drag us too much in a quagmire that would ultimately devour us as a united country. However if genuine desire on the part of India for making durable peace with Pakistan is discernible then there may be no harm in giving such an effort yet another trial.

The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a former diplomat

For Comments and to unsubscribe write us at qureshisaeed50@hotmail.com

 

 

, , ,

No Comments

NAWAZ SHARIF ASLEEP: Inna’lillahe… This is a declaration of war. Pakistan May Have to Destroy These Dams with Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike

I N D I A – starts building 850MW Ratle Dam on Chenab River. Electricity will be sold to Pakistan.

10.07.2013– Details of Nawaz Shareef”s love story with India.

PAKISTAN: LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION

PAKISTANI MEDIA FIDDLES WHILE THE NATION SITS ON TOP OF A VOLCANO

ISLAMABAD: In an another blow to Pakistan’s water interests, India has started constructing the Ratle Hydropower Dam project with a capacity to generate 850MWs of electricity on Pakistan’s Chenab River, in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, documents available with The News reveal. 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/

 

 

Todays-New…-Dam-on-Chenab

 

Another blow to Pakistan’s water interests…India starts building 850MW Ratle Dam on Chenab

Khalid Mustafa
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 
From Print Edition

ISLAMABAD: In an another blow to Pakistan’s water interests, India has started constructing the Ratle Hydropower Dam project with a capacity to generate 850MWs of electricity on Pakistan’s Chenab River, in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, documents available with The News reveal.

Pakistan has already objected to this dam, which will be three times larger than the Baglihar Hydropower Dam. Mirza Asif Baig, Commissioner of Pakistan Commissionof Indus Water, confirmed that India had planned to construct the Ratle Hydropower project on the Chenab and Pakistan’s side had objected to the project saying it was a sheer violation of the provisions of Indus Waters Treaty 1960.

“We have come up with strong objections to the design of the said project in a meeting with India at the Permanent Commission of Indus Waters (PCIW) level,” Baig said and vowed that in the future meeting at the PCIW level, he would continue to oppose the said project as its design violated the Indus Waters Treaty.

Senior Pakistani lawyer Ms Shumaila Mehmood, in the case of Kishenganga Hydropower project, said though she was aware of the development but it was the PCIW which dealt with the projects constructed by India on Pakistani rivers at earlier stages.

India has already carved out a plan to generate 32,000MWs of electricity on Pakistani rivers and will be having the capacity to regulate the water flows that are destined to reach Pakistan. So far India has built Dalhasti hydropower project of 330MWs, Baglihar of 450MWs and now it has started a new project named Ratle Hydropower project.

On the Neelum River that joins the Jehlum River in Pakistan, India has already completed Uri-1, Uri-II Hydropower project and is also close to completing the Kishenganga Hydropower project. So much so, it has also built two hydropower projects on the Indus River that include Nimmo Bazgo and Chattak hydropower project.

Sonia Gandhi, along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, laid the foundation stone of the 850MWs Hydro Electric Project on the Chenab River in the Kishtwar Tehsil of Doda district of the Indian-Held-Kashmir just a few days ago.

This is the first time that both leaders have jointly laid the foundation stone. The electricity to be produced from the project will be injected into the national grid of India that will then be sold to Pakistan.

Former Wapda chairman Shamsul Mulk said that Pakistan needs to develop water uses in its all rivers by building water reservoirs to prevent India from constructing the hydropower project. “Once Pakistan develops its water uses, then it can argue at any international court that India cannot build its project by injuring committed flows of Pakistan.”

He said that there was a strong lobby of India in our country which did not want Pakistan to develop water uses.However, when this horrifying development surfaced, an eminent water expert Arshad Abbasi had sensitised the-then Minister of Water and Power Dr Mussadik Malik, who is now the special assistant to the PM on powers sector, about this alarming development but he did not respond as expected from him. Rather he was an advocate for import of electricity from India.

Dr Mussadik was asked to probe as to who had cleared this project from Pakistan’s side but he didn’t do so. However, Engr Safiq, who is also an eminent water expert, came down heavily on Dr Mussadik saying he is dual nationality holder and is holding a too-much important post and is an advocate of importing electricity from India and asked where the security agencies were. He said that Pakistan’s water sector had become dysfunctional.

According to documents available with The News, the Ratle project envisages harnessing the hydro-power potential of the river from EL 1000m to EL 887m. This is a concrete gravity dam at a height of 170m, will be built across the river just downstream of the Ratle village and an underground power house with an installed capacity of 4X140MWs is proposed near Juddi village, both in Doda district. The main project will generate 2,483.37 Million Unit of Electricity at the rate of Indian Rupee of only 1.22 per KWh.

After meeting of Arshad Abbasi with Dr Mussadik Malik, a brief paper including measures to check the enforcement of Indus Waters Treaty in letter and spirit was sent to Mussadik, but Musadik preferred playing his role in releasing funds for the IPPs, a more lucrative task for him.

Surprisingly, the former interim minister is an adviser to the current regime, and is only advocating importing electricity at Rs16 per unit. Even though he had been briefed about the 1,460MWs Tarbela Dam Extension VI project, he still preferred to advise the government to import electricity from India.

When contacted, Dr Mussadik Malik said: “Yes I was briefed about Indus Water Treaty issue. However, I focused on the power sector keeping in view the crippling power outages. Now after completing my assignment on power sector, I will pay heed to the water sector.”

He said that the government had planned to develop five dams so that for five times, cheaper electricity on water flows could be produced on one main river and more importantly the per capita water availability could be raised to a reasonable level, which now stands at 1,000 cubic metre per person.

About the Rattle Hydropower project, he said that the PCIW is the department which deals with such issues.

Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Abbasi requested to demand EIA (environment impact assessment) report of Ratle Hydroelectric power project. As the land proposed for this project is mostly thick conifer forests, deforestation will have a terrible impact on the river water yield in the future and the victim will be only lower riparian) i.e. Pakistan.








ISLAMABAD: In an another blow to Pakistan’s water interests, India has started constructing the Ratle Hydropower Dam project with a capacity to generate 850MWs of electricity on Pakistan’s Chenab River, in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, documents available with The News reveal. 

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-New…-Dam-on-Chenab

 

Will Pakistan Become a Desolate Tract?

March 23rd, 2012 

Written by 

Ref

 

On 19th September 2020, a massive crowd gathered at the Minto Park where the political leadership in coalition with the Difa-i-Pakistan council held a rally. A thirsty famine-struck crowd listened to, “We will not allow India to continue this! We will defeat them and will not allow them to violate the Indus Water Treaty by trying to sabotage our river waters by constructing dams. The Indians would not be left alone with our water. Jihad is the only justice for this Nuclear Islamic State.” The crowd cheered with enthusiasm “Pakistan Zindabad, Leadership Zindabad, and Indians Murdabad.”
As I write this article today I can picture Pakistan all dried up and turned into a desolate tract by 2020. I can hear the booming voices of the politicians screaming out aloud that India has made us lifeless without water. The rivers are all dried up and one can see the gypsies comfortably making the river bed as their home.


One could see that the 1960 Indus Water Treaty with India was a blessing in disguise for the Pakistani state as it helped to manage the conflict at hand. The treaty divided the western and eastern rivers between Pakistan and India. It brought in the concept of water sharing, dispute settlement mechanism and Basin administration fund.  The treaty provided the lower riparian state with a network of canals, barrages and dams. It provided the Pakistani state with two of the largest dams Mangla and Tarbela. Until now the treaty has been hailed as a big accomplishment between both the kin states as it withstood the test of time but now it has come under a lot of strain due to a decline of water flow in the Indus River system. When Pakistan and India became separate entities in 1947, the Indus Basin had sufficient water for everyone. Half of the Indus waters were flowing into the Arabian Sea almost unused then. So did India drank all the water or was Pakistan so thirsty that it gulped down all the river water?
The demand of water has risen due to unbridled population growth whereas its supply has become less. The declining of the river waters is a serious issue. Due to a change in the climate, the glaciers are fast receding due to which the water levels are also declining.  Asian Development Bank has labeled Pakistan as the world’s most water stressed state with the shortage becoming acute by 2020.
The successive Pakistani governments have ignored the water problem which has culminated into a serious situation. Today the country faces water and power shortage but, shockingly, the policy makers have never given water the status of a core national interest. Thus, India has been working fast for conserving water whereas Pakistan had been stuck on the vital projects like the Kalabagh Dam.
The blessings of the treaty include our mega dams. But in light of climate, population and unlimited Indian dam construction, the Indus Water Treaty needs to be revised. Unlike the Indians, the Pakistani side did little for conserving water. India has not only utilized its own river waters but has also focused on the western waters feeding Pakistan. What the government is doing about this precarious situation is only putting the blame on Indians. Water is a serious problem – more than the Zulfiqar/Benazir Bhutto murders, memogate and mehrangate issues.  Thus, the government better wake up from its slumber and the rallies of difa-i-Pakistan should focus more on conserving water rather than inciting the masses against either the US or India.

 

 

 

THE GREAT RIVERS OF SOUTH ASIA

The upper and lower reaches of the Indus

Source: http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist086/material/slideshow2.htm 
(downloaded May 2006)


The fertile lower reaches of the Ganges

Source: http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist086/material/slideshow2.htm 
(downloaded May 2006) 


Major river basins of India and the modern water supply situation

Source: http://www.history.upenn.edu/coursepages/hist086/material/IndiaRiverBasins.gif 
(downloaded May 2006)


A rainfall map of South Asia, from the zoomable online Schwartzberg atlas: *p. 5*


 

 






 

 

 

, , , , , , ,

No Comments