ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has so far not made any decision to abrogate any bilateral agreement with India, a senior official of the country’s foreign office said on Thursday, hours after Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the provisions of the Simla Agreement with Delhi were no longer applicable.
India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement in 1972 after the 1971 war between the two countries, which New Delhi won and led to the creation of Bangladesh. One of its main clauses was that India and Pakistan both agreed to bilaterally discuss and resolve the issue of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
Another clause of the agreement was that both countries renamed the Ceasefire Line, the de facto border separating Pakistan-administered Kashmir from the one governed by India, to the “Line of Control” (LoC). Both India and Pakistan agreed not to change it unilaterally.
After India suspended a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April, Pakistan announced a raft of tit-for-tat measures against Delhi. Islamabad said it had the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India, including the Simla Agreement, in abeyance.
Speaking to Geo News, Asif said the “sanctity” of the agreement had ended due to India’s steps and that all of its provisions were no longer applicable. The defense minister said the bilateral agreement as a whole after India and Pakistan’s May military confrontation, “has no worth or value.”
“No formal decision on abrogation of any bilateral agreement with India has so far been made,” a senior official of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) told Arab News in response to questions.
Asif had reiterated Pakistan’s position that India’s move to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance was illegal as the terms dictated that neither of the two parties could alter its status unilaterally.
Signed in 1960, the treaty allocates the six Indus Basin rivers between India and Pakistan, with the World Bank acting as its guarantor.
Pakistan has rights to the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower. India controls the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — for unrestricted use but must not significantly alter their flow.
India can use the western rivers for limited purposes such as power generation and irrigation, without storing or diverting large volumes
Asif said neither the World Bank nor any other institution had any “interference or patronage” in the Simla Agreement when it was signed in 1972.
“So then, the Control Line will once again shift to its original status of Ceasefire Line,” the minister said.
While the fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan announced on May 10 by US President Donald Trump -persists, tensions remain high as delegations by both nuclear-armed neighbors head to world capitals and blame each other for the May conflict.
Kashmir has always remained the root cause of conflict between India and Pakistan. The two countries claim the region in full but administer only parts of it. They have fought two out of three wars since 1947 over the territory.
Delhi blames Islamabad for fomenting militancy in the part of Kashmir it administers. Pakistan denies the allegations and says it only extends diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir it says are living under “occupation.”
