Pakistan took full advantage of Indus Waters Treaty following India’s unequal concessions: PK Saxena

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is an unequal treaty, said PK Saxena, former Indian Commissioner for Indus Waters. Speaking at the release of a handbook, ‘Revisiting the Indus Waters Treaty’, by Delhi-based think tank NATSTRAT on Thursday, he said India made unequal concessions while Pakistan took full advantage of the 1960 water distribution pact, which has been held in abeyance by India since April 2025,

“The IWT survived India-Pakistan wars but the treaty itself was unequal. India made unequal concessions to Pakistan under IWT. Pakistan took full advantage of IWT but it slowed down the development process in Jammu and Kashmir,” Saxena said.

“The IWT was systematically weaponised by Pakistan to obstruct legitimate hydropower development in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan’s claims of agricultural devastation are not supported by facts. Its water crisis is primarily the product of domestic policy failure, and the vulnerability is self-made,” he said.


In his opening remarks on the occasion, Alok Joshi, chairman of India’s reconstituted National Security Advisory Board, described the treaty as unequal and said that for India, IWT in its current form is unacceptable.

Writing in the volume, Pankaj Saran, convenor, NATSTRAT, and former deputy national security advisor, said, “The Treaty has a long history of surviving decades of tensions and wars between India and Pakistan. While the Treaty was in operation, Pakistan pursued a reckless approach, taking for granted the good deal it had got in 1960, and misusing Treaty provisions to derail or delay several Indian projects. India went along, but the Pahalgam attack was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Treaty has been put “in abeyance” by India. Pakistan has activated global opinion and is knocking at international forums. It has raised the level of its rhetoric.”

Signed in Karachi in 1960 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan President Ayub Khan, with the World Bank brokering nine years of negotiations, the Indus Waters Treaty allocated the eastern rivers—Ravi, Beas and Sutlej— to India, and the western rivers—Indus, Jhelum and Chenab—to Pakistan, while permitting India limited “non-consumptive” use of the western rivers. Anchored by the Permanent Indus Commission and a structured dispute-resolution mechanism, the treaty survived three wars and numerous military and diplomatic crises between the two countries.

More than six decades later, however, the strategic, technological and environmental landscape surrounding the Indus Basin has changed considerably. Climate change, new engineering capabilities, increasing water stress and evolving security realities have exposed tensions between the treaty’s original architecture and contemporary requirements.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22, 2025, India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, marking a decisive shift in a longstanding debate.