Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik addresses the Fourth International High-Level Conference on Water for Sustainable Development in Dushanbe on Tuesday. SCREEN GRAB
Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik warned on Tuesday that India’s reported move to put the Indus Waters Treaty on hold could set a dangerous precedent for downstream countries around the world, warning that the weaponization of water threatened the foundations of global treaty systems and multilateralism.
Addressing the fourth high-level international conference on the international decade for action “Water for Sustainable Development” in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, Malik accused India of politicizing shared water resources and said climate change should lead to greater cooperation, transparency and adherence to international agreements – not unilateral actions.
“There was no legal provision in the treaty to take any unilateral action and yet this treaty was put on hold,” Malik said. “It was not suspended because it was legally defective. It was suspended, or so it is suggested, because it did not serve the politics of one country.”
Read: Pakistan wins Hague verdict in IWT series
He warned that such actions could undermine the water rights of low-lying coastal states globally.
“No downstream country in the world after this shall have water rights,” he said. “Mark my words, once this precedent is set, no downstream country in the entire world would have water rights.”
The minister said the issue was not only about Pakistan but about the future of international treaties and transboundary water management.
“If this treaty does not hold, then all the treaties of the world are not worth the weight of the paper they were printed on,” he said.
Last year, India put the Indus Waters Treaty on hold following the April 22 attack in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) Pahalgam area, in which 26 people were killed by unidentified assailants.
Malik said climate change required “more compliance, not less,” as well as increased transparency, data sharing and early warning systems.
“Climate change meant all these things, not using it as an excuse to suspend or unilaterally reinterpret or circumvent a legally binding treaty,” he added.
Citing a recent arbitral tribunal, Malik said the ruling had clarified limits on water retention and hydropower design for upstream countries, but lamented the absence of binding enforcement mechanisms.
“The rules-based regimes are collapsing,” he said. “Multilateralism Weakens and New Doctrines of Unilateralism Rise.”
Also Read: FM Dar urges UN Security Council President to pressure India to restore Indus Waters Treaty
“I can tell you that even water becomes a weapon,” he added.
Calling for stronger international mechanisms, the minister urged the conference to work towards binding global conventions on transboundary water management and mandatory third-party dispute settlement mechanisms between upstream and downstream countries.
“Pakistan would like to urge this conference to come up with binding international conventions on transboundary waters,” he said. “Pakistan would like to ask for political, economic and diplomatic consequences for violators.”
The minister also highlighted the human cost of climate change and water insecurity, saying vulnerable communities are paying the price of global inaction.
“The woman who wakes up at dawn and goes four hours for a bucket of water does not look forward to a framework for the outcome of the conference,” he said. “The child who is dead or dying does not ask for another voluntary commitment.”
Calling for stronger legal and institutional mechanisms to protect water rights, Malik said the world needed enforceable laws, institutions with the courage to implement them, and leadership that recognized access to water as a fundamental right that requires justice and accountability.
Talking about Pakistan’s climate vulnerability, Malik said the country contributed less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions but continued to suffer devastating floods, droughts and ice melt.
“We didn’t cause it. Why are we paying for this?” he asked.
Malik said recurring cycles of floods and droughts pushed farming communities back into poverty and damaged farmland.
“These are not tragedies,” he said. “These are the consequences of the decisions that people like us make at these conferences.”
Also read: Zardari urges India to fully restore IWT, warns against ‘weaponisation’ of water
Describing water scarcity as a growing global crisis, the minister said nearly two billion people lacked clean drinking water, while billions more faced seasonal water shortages.
“This water crisis that we are talking about is not a water crisis; this is a food security issue,” he said. “People are going to deal with hunger.”
Malik argued that the political architecture surrounding water resources disproportionately disadvantaged downstream nations.
“Water flows downhill, but electricity does not,” he said. “Country by country, basin by basin, the countries that are downstream have less political power, less influence and less economic power.”
He concluded by urging global leaders to move beyond declarations and voluntary commitments.
“We should not talk about how we think and what we think,” he said. “We should talk about what to do.”
The 1960 IWT stands as one of the most carefully negotiated and legally robust transboundary water agreements in modern international law. Signed between Pakistan and India with the good offices of the World Bank, the treaty was designed to remove water from the volatility of politics and conflict and anchor it firmly in law, engineering discipline and neutral dispute resolution. It is a binding international instrument governed by the fundamental principle of pacta sunt servanda – that treaties must be observed in good faith.
Read: Pakistan accuses India of violating Indus Waters Treaty
At the heart of the IWT is a permanent and unqualified allocation of rivers. Article II assigns the eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – exclusively to India, while Article III gives Pakistan exclusive rights over the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. This award was the basic agreement of the treaty.
India’s access to the western rivers is permitted only within the narrow limits of Article III, para. 2, of the Indus Waters Treaty, read with Annexes D and E, which allows limited, non-consumptive uses such as hydroelectric power plants in the river. These permits are subject to strict design and operational restrictions, including restrictions on water bodies, prohibitions on storage for flow regulation, and a prohibition on technical features that enable control of water flows to Pakistan.
These safeguards aimed to protect Pakistan as the lower river bank and prevent water from becoming a strategic tool. Pakistan’s objections to projects such as Kishanganga and Ratle stem from concerns over excessive water bodies, fenced drains and mechanisms that Pakistan says violate treaty provisions and can affect downstream flows, especially during lean seasons.
The dispute entered a more worrying phase in April 2025 when, following a terrorist incident in Pahalgam, India announced that it was putting the Indus Waters Treaty “on pause”.
Read more: India skips IWT proceedings in Hague
Earlier this year, India unilaterally approved the Dulhasti Stage-II hydropower project on the Chenab River, an act that violates the provisions of the Western Rivers Treaty and violates Pakistan’s legally protected rights under the binding international agreement.
The unilateral suspension and expedited approval of upstream projects, including the withholding of hydrological data, diversion of river flows and alteration of natural regimes, constitutes deliberate water weaponry that endangers Pakistan’s agriculture, food security, hydropower generation and ecological stability. Under the IWT, customary international law and Article 51 of the UN Charter, Pakistan has clear legal options to respond.
International law expressly prohibits the use of water as a weapon against downstream populations, making strict enforcement of the IWT essential not only for bilateral stability but also for the integrity of global water management norms.
