China is also a player

    

      The Institute of International Relations and Media Research organized a seminar on the most important issue of water in the subcontinent after the recent Pak-India war, which can ignite a lot. Federal Minister for Water Resources Moin Wattoo, former Provincial Minister for Irrigation Mohsin Leghari, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, Sohail Warraich, Javed Farooqi, Zulfiqar Mahto, Yasir Habib, water expert Chaudhry Shafiq, former Indus Water Commissioners Shiraz Jamil, Asif Baig and other experts participated. All the participants were in complete agreement on these issues that if any mischief is attempted by India on water, then in such a situation, instead of any emotional reaction, every forum should be used that can prove useful for resolving the issue and there is no second opinion in this that even the slightest negligence on water issues will cause extraordinary trouble for Pakistan, so Pakistan will go to the extreme to counter any water aggression. When India announced the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, I was already engaged in a research work regarding Pakistan’s water resources because there are differences of opinion on water issues even among the provinces of Pakistan and it is also certain that the people of each province love their beloved country more than the other province, so their reservations should be understood to know what the real problem is. It is also an irrefutable fact that the water resources of Pakistan and India are not limited to these two countries only. China and Bangladesh play an important role in this. Long story short, when India announced the “suspension” of the Indus Water Treaty, at that time I was discussing China’s water resources and the relationship between these resources and India with a Chinese friend living in Beijing.

Then India made this announcement and it is clear that it will not be only the people of the subcontinent who will be struggling with water issues, but China will directly emerge as a player in this and the player too is one who has much more resources than both Pakistan and India. My question was how do you view this Indian initiative? The Chinese friend said that since the Modi government came to power in India, it has been doing a lot of things that are nothing but empty political slogans and to please its fanatical supporters, but rather just implementing the philosophy of show and rule. If any attempt is made to stop Pakistan's water, Pakistan will continue to sit quietly and watch. Those who think like this also live in a fool's paradise. And if water is stopped like this, then in such a situation, how can India stop any other country from stopping the water flowing towards India?

     The Brahmaputra River flows from Tibet through the northeastern regions of India and reaches Bangladesh. China plans to build a huge dam in Tibet at a cost of 137 billion dollars to meet its energy needs. This project is in the sensitive region of the Himalayas where the Brahmaputra River takes a sharp turn and enters Arunachal Pradesh in India. China has a firm stance that China is moving towards developing such a huge project to meet its energy needs only and we will also guard our words. However, if India flouts international agreements, abandons all moral principles and adopts a strategy of creating difficulties for Pakistan on the issue of water, then in such a situation, what justification does it have and it should also be kept in mind how much power it will have to prevent any other country from resolving water issues explicitly from its own point of view.

The current leadership of India wants to run India only through internal success but also local level political understanding. Whatever they do internally is a separate issue, but India will have to deal with the extraordinary effects of trying to deal with international affairs in a childish manner.Ever since the Modi government came to power, they have been threatening to shut down water supply and since then, whenever the master of letters met diplomats, especially Western, American and Indian diplomats, they said the same thing that along with the Kashmir issue, India has also made it a water issue and there is a problem of making the fertile lands of Pakistan, especially Punjab and Sindh, barren, which Pakistan will not tolerate under any circumstances. India's latest aggression has made it clear that the Indian rulers will not hesitate to take any action in a state of madness and therefore it is necessary that just as Pakistan and China have excellent cooperation in defense strategy, similarly in water matters, only by finding common points between China and Pakistan's strategy can all kinds of peace be maintained in the subcontinent and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar should immediately start working on this issue.