?? ????? ????| PAKISTAN LEDGER | ???????? ????? | June 3rd, 2008  | Moin Ansari | ???? ??????? |  | RUPEE NEWS | Moin Ansari | June 3rd, 2008 | ???? ??????? | ????? ????? |

• Indian Aqua bomb-Pakistan’s future water wars in Kashmir
• Indus Water Treaty, Kalabagh, Kashmir, & Gurdaspur
• Indo-Pakistan Kishan Ganga talks fail again: India expdites construction

HOW COULD TALKS SUCCEED WHEN INDIA IS EXPEDITING BUILDING THE DAM?

Apparently the decision to expedite the construction of the Kishanganga dam had been taken prior to the negotiations with Pakistan. Why did the Indian delegation then visit Pakistan. Perhaps it was the toursit season before the summer heat that inspired them to come to Islamabad and enjoy the toursit sites. Certainly the delegation did not come to resolve any issues or make and concessions.

India wants to present the Kishanganga dam as a fait accompli to the World Bank arbitration team.

India to speed up work on Kishanganga: NEW DELHI, June 7: India said on Saturday that work on the Kishanganga water project would be expedited citing the reason that Pakistan was also constructing a power project on the same river on its side.

During a meeting of the Indus Water Commissioners held earlier last week in Lahore, the two countries had decided that experts from the two countries would inspect the Kishanganga and Neelum Hydel projects.

Media reports quoting Indian Minister of State for Power

Jairam Ramesh said in Srinagar that work on the 300MW Kishanganga project was at an advanced stage.

“We need to speed up the work on the project as Pakistan is also constructing a power project on the river with Chinese assistance,” he said.

Talking to reporters, he claimed that the power project was based on ‘run of the water’ and did not involve storage of water at any stage. When asked about the rationale behind constructing two projects on the same river while one of the two will not be viable, Ramesh said the project had “great strategic” and “foreign policy implications.”

“I am sure Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must have given a thought to it. Only the prime minister or the external affairs minister will be able to comment on the issue,” he said.

“However, we are determined to implement the project which was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2007,” the minister said. Ramesh said the first phase of the Baghlihar project would be commissioned by March next year.

“Some 150MW will be in the stream by August this year, 150MW in October and another 150MW in December,” he said.- 

All negotiations between Pakisan and India on Kashmir have failed. India used a forged instrument of accession and occupied kashmir. Azad Kashmir and Norhtern Areas were liberated. India also occupied Hydrabad, Manvadar, and Junagarh. There is no agreement on Kashmir, Sir Creek, Siachin, and Wullar Barrage. Why would Kishanganga be different.

Pakistan, India fail to bridge differences: Kishan-Ganga project By Ahmad Fraz Khan

LAHORE, June 2: Pakistan and India will hold the next round of talks on the Kishan-Ganga project in the third week of July and if the talks fail the issue may be referred to a third party for arbitration.

The second round of talks between Indus commissioners of the two countries concluded here on Monday without any progress on objections to the project raised by Pakistan. The two sides discussed the issues of flushing of dam and gated or un-gated structure but failed to resolve them.

The Indian side, which promised to respond to the Pakistani request of setting a timeframe for the dialogue, agreed to meet again in the third week next month.

Technicalities of the Indus basin treaty invaded the dialogue when Pakistan insisted that its six objections had formally been converted into “questions for arbitration”. The Indian side, however, requested to treat them as mere objections, a step before invoking the third party arbitration.

The two sides stuck to their points of view, Pakistan treating them as questions and India as objections, and held two days of talks which proved to be inconclusive.

Pakistan’s Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah told dawn that the process was inching towards conclusion. “Both sides have agreed that the issue should be resolved at the commissioners’ level and third party arbitration must be avoided. It reflects sincerity of purpose on both sides.”

The Indian side had revised the design after objections from Pakistan and made it a run-of-the-river project.

Pakistan also raised objections to the new design and insisted that under the Indus Basin Water Treaty India could not divert Kishan-Ganga water to Wuller barrage, where it was building an 800MW hydro-power project.

Pakistan raised six objections and then formalised them as questions which are now under discussion.

“Pakistan is ready to concede reasonable time so that the Indian side could come up with the required data, but the process cannot be allowed to linger on,” Mr Shah said. That was why Pakistan was asking for a timeframe as happened in 2004 and India revised the design in 2005, he added.

“Pakistan received data on all its objections but it was incomplete which gave way to fresh objections,” said an insider.

The issue appears to be going the Baghlihar way – the third party arbitration. The Indian side got away with the Baghlihar dam in spite of it being in clear violation of the treaty.

The Indians seemed more inclined towards arbitration than resolving the issue at the commissioners’ level, he said, adding that the optimism on the Pakistani side could be misplaced because the Indians were not expected to address all six objections during the July round.

“Pakistan should prepare for arbitration, but certainly after the July round.”

Siachin was part of Pakistan ’till the 80s

The Indian position on Siachin is untenable, illogical and defies all sense of fair play. Why would the line of control take a perpendicular turn and begin moving deep into Pakitani Kashmir, instead of moving North to China?