Sharif tells UN diverting Indus waters would be act of war

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly that any attempt by India to stop, impede or divert Pakistan's share of the Indus waters would be treated as an act of war. Sharif, speaking in his roughly 23-minute address, said India's decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance has no legal basis and warned New Delhi against misconceptions on the question of river water.keralakaumudi.com+1

The warning matters because the Indus basin supplies water on which Pakistan's people and economy depend, and because India has kept the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance despite a Hague tribunal ruling that the treaty remains fully in force. Sharif's speech set water alongside Kashmir as the two issues Pakistan wants resolved, and it drew an immediate Indian right of reply at the same session.

What Sharif told the assembly

Sharif framed the Indus basin as essential to more than one country. "The waters of the Indus basin are the lifeblood not only of the people of Pakistan but of the entire region," he said, adding that water should never be used as a weapon. He said experts at the United Nations and the Court of Arbitration have upheld Pakistan's position that the treaty remains valid and fully in force.

India's First Secretary at the United Nations, Petal Gahlot, exercised India's right of reply and rejected Sharif's remarks. Gahlot said Pakistan's longstanding practice of cross-border terrorism would have consequences, and that India's right to defend itself against terrorism would be exercised. She said continued terrorism from Pakistan would call into question what had been premised on friendship and goodwill between the two countries.

India's reply on terrorism

Gahlot went further, describing Pakistan's government as a puppet regime whose capital was being fortified against its own people. She referred to Pakistan's 27th Constitutional Amendment, passed in November last year, which she said grants lifelong legal immunity to Field Marshal Asim Munir, and she said the reality of Pakistan is expressed in that amendment. She also rejected Pakistan's references to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indus Waters Treaty governs how India and Pakistan share the waters of the Indus river system. India's decision to hold the treaty in abeyance is the step Pakistan calls unilateral and without legal basis, while a recent Hague tribunal ruling found the treaty remains fully in force. Sharif told the assembly that India should harbour no misconceptions and that any withholding or diversion of Pakistan's share would count as an act of war.

The treaty dispute explained

Sharif also looked back at the military confrontation of last year. He called an attack launched against Pakistan from India a year ago one based on fabricated pretexts, and said Pakistan's armed forces responded under Field Marshal Asim Munir. Pakistan considers Indian missile strikes on May 7 the start of that low-level conflict, which ran for less than a week, while India contends the strikes answered an attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in April last year.

Sharif thanked US President Donald Trump for what he called a timely intervention during the military tensions that followed Operation Sindoor. "Donald Trump's timely intervention came at a moment when two nuclear-armed neighbours were on the brink of all-out war," Sharif said, asking how much devastation might have followed without that intervention at the critical juncture.

Gahlot answered the terrorism charge with specific references. She noted that the remarks came a fortnight after the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and that Osama bin Laden, their mastermind, was living on the doorstep of the Pakistani Army's premier academy. She said Pakistan praised the very military establishment that had hosted him, and she questioned Pakistan's record on minorities and democracy.

What happens next

Sharif used the address to press for a just and fair resolution of the Kashmir dispute, alleging human rights violations in the region. Gahlot replied that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inseparable part of India, and said that if Kashmir is discussed, Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir must be part of the discussion, citing Rawalakot and what she called killings, violence and denial of basic rights.

The two sides also traded accusations on the wider relationship. India accused Pakistan of terrorism, deceit and duplicity, while Pakistan accused India of weaponizing water and holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance without legal basis. Both claims were made on the same day at the same forum, with each country using its speaking time to put its own account of the past year's confrontation on the record.

The next step follows from the session itself. India said it was confident the General Assembly would assess Pakistan on the basis of its actions rather than the claims of its representative, and Gahlot warned that continued terrorism would have consequences. Pakistan has said it will treat any diversion of its Indus share as an act of war, leaving the treaty's abeyance as the live dispute between the two governments.