🌊 WTF Water Wars: When Terror-Funding Pakistan Ran to The Hague with a Bucket and a Treaty...
India Affairs | June 2025 | Bureau of Borewells & Boldness
WTF? A “Supplemental Award” for a Treaty on Life Support?
In a development that has many in New Delhi squinting at international law like it’s written in Martian, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague issued what it calls a “Supplemental Award of Competence” regarding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)—a 1960 water-sharing agreement now halfway between a relic and a ritual sacrifice.
NOTE: The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), founded by treaty in 1899, is an intergovernmental organization that offers dispute resolution services—such as arbitration, conciliation, and fact-finding—to help resolve international conflicts between states, state entities, intergovernmental bodies, and even private parties under international law.
And who’s celebrating? Pakistan, the same country currently unable to provide 12 hours of electricity in a row, just hailed the ruling as a diplomatic victory, claiming it proves India can’t sideline the arbitration process.
India, naturally, responded with the diplomatic equivalent of a door slam: categorical rejection.
Why? Because not only does India not recognize the existence of this Court of Arbitration, it believes Pakistan’s unilateral decision to run crying to the World Bank in 2016 was a violation of the treaty itself—and more importantly, a bad habit.
Let’s Rewind: Why India Put the Indus Waters Treaty in Abeyance
India’s recent position is straightforward—and entirely logical for anyone not living in a Rawalpindi military compound.
On April 22, 2025, 26 Indian citizens were killed in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, traced back, as always, to Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits. Enough was enough.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced it would suspend its obligations under the Indus Waters Treaty, exercising its sovereign rights under international law—especially since Pakistan treats cross-border terrorism like a seasonal export industry.
To quote the MEA:
“Until such time that the Treaty is in abeyance, India is no longer bound to perform any of its obligations under the Treaty.”
Translation: No water talks until you stop exporting terror.
Enter the Court of Arbitration: Lawyering While the LeT Laughs
The PCA, rather than taking note of Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism or even acknowledging that New Delhi’s water-related patience has been strained thinner than a Punjabi paratha, decided to entertain Islamabad’s whining over design issues in India’s Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects.
Yes, you read that right. As Pakistan backs terror proxies, they're upset about turbine angles.
And now, the PCA has issued this mysterious-sounding “Supplemental Award” to assert that:
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India cannot unilaterally suspend the treaty,
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The IWT remains in force,
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Ongoing disputes must be resolved via the third-party arbitration mechanisms enshrined in the treaty.
That’s rich—especially coming from a nation that can’t even resolve internal water disputes between its own provinces without military mediation.
India’s Position: We Don't Negotiate with Legal Masquerades
India’s Ministry of External Affairs didn’t mince words. It dismissed the PCA as a “so-called Court of Arbitration” that had been illegally constituted, and declared any rulings from this forum as “void ab initio”—null and void from the start.
“This charade at Pakistan’s behest does not alter the legal reality.”
Also, let’s be clear: the World Bank’s role here is less “honest broker” and more “reluctant landlord trying to evict a bad tenant with diplomatic immunity.” India and Pakistan had multiple rounds of talks up to 2015. Pakistan bailed out and unilaterally approached the World Bank in 2016. This isn’t dispute resolution; it’s dispute tourism.
What Pakistan Says: "India Can’t Just Walk Away"
In a tone that would make even the average Islamabad tea-stall philosopher snort, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement applauding the PCA and accusing India of "undermining international law."
They claim India’s “abeyance” declaration is a breach of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties—as if Pakistan’s foreign policy team hasn’t spent the past 30 years pretending the UN’s anti-terrorism conventions are fictional bedtime stories.
They’ve also warned that suspending Pakistan’s water share would be considered an “act of war.”
Ah yes, because the actual act of war—killing 26 Indians via a sponsored jihad factory—doesn’t count unless there’s water involved.
The Real Thread: Pakistan’s Terror Proxy and Legal Diplomacy Addiction
Let’s take a moment to laugh—loudly and in legally sound Hindi—at the absurdity here:
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Pakistan funds and hosts terror groups, then says India must uphold every clause of a 64-year-old treaty.
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Pakistan uses legal forums like the PCA as diplomatic grenades while ignoring its own international obligations (like, say, arresting Hafiz Saeed or shutting down Jaish-e-Mohammed).
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Pakistan insists on the sanctity of a water treaty while burning bridges in Kashmir and Gilgit with insurgent training camps.
It’s like robbing your neighbor’s house and then demanding he still split the Netflix bill.
The Kishenganga & Ratle Projects: Pakistan's Favorite Hydrological Paranoia
For the record:
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Kishenganga (330 MW) and Ratle (850 MW) are run-of-the-river hydropower projects, entirely legal under the IWT.
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Their construction involves no violation of flow rights or obstruction of downstream water access for Pakistan.
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Pakistan’s objections are technical smoke and political mirrors, designed to delay Indian infrastructure and keep the global narrative on “poor Pakistan being squeezed.”
What they won’t admit? India’s hydro strategy is succeeding. And it’s clean energy, not water theft.
What India Should—and Will—Do
India's posture should be clear:
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Treat terrorism first, talk treaties later.
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Respect only those international forums not being gamed by a rogue state.
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Continue building hydro-infrastructure in J&K—because national development does not require Pakistani permission slips.
In 2025, India is a space-faring economic power. We don’t need to explain turbine design to a country that still thinks blocking Twitter is cyber policy.
The real question is: Why didn’t India withdraw from the IWT altogether, a long time ago?
Because a treaty is only as good as the trust it's built on. And with Pakistan, that trust drowned long ago—somewhere near the Line of Control.
Coming Soon on WTF Bharat Affairs:
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“Water Under Siege: Why India Needs a New Indus Doctrine”
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“From Kargil to Kishenganga: Why Pakistan Only Understands Pressure, Not Peace”
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“When Turbines Trigger Terrorists: A Hydropower History of Pakistani Hysteria”
Stay sovereign. Stay strategic. Stay WTF.
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