Islamabad, Sept 2: Pakistan on Wednesday urged India to engage with it constructively within the framework of the Indus Water Treaty that both countries solemnly accepted.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi made the remarks days after India rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s order setting aside its decision to suspend the IWT with Pakistan.
India decided to put the IWT in abeyance as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures unveiled soon after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year that killed 26 civilians.
Pakistan had approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in March this year to determine the status of the treaty, virtually challenging India’s action.
India has never recognised the “existence in law of this illegally-constituted and so-called Court of Arbitration”, and has always said the “very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the Indus Waters Treaty”.
Andrabi said that the court had reaffirmed that the IWT remained fully enforced and binding.
Pakistan will take all possible measures to ensure that the decision of the Court is implemented fully, he added.
He said that Pakistan is committed to implementing the treaty in letter and spirit in accordance with its language and provisions.
Pakistan will continue to urge India to reciprocate with the same approach whereby the treaty is upheld in letter and spirit and in its full legal documented provisions, he added. (PTI)
