Pakistan pleads India to resume Indus Water treaty amid Munir and Bilawal Bhutto's attack threats

Days after Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari issued threats against India, Islamabad on Monday appealed to New Delhi to immediately restore the Indus Waters Treaty, which has been on hold since May.

India suspended the 1960 treaty in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, citing it as part of a series of punitive measures against Pakistan.

In an official statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office reaffirmed its commitment to the “full implementation” of the treaty and called on India to resume its normal functioning without delay. It also welcomed the August 8 ruling by the Court of Arbitration, which interpreted the treaty’s provisions concerning India’s planned run-of-river hydropower projects on the Western Rivers—Chenab, Jhelum, and Indus.


The Foreign Office highlighted that the court’s decision directs India to “let flow” the waters of these rivers for Pakistan’s unrestricted use, and that any hydroelectric development must strictly adhere to the treaty’s criteria, not India’s own “ideal” or “best practices” approach.

India has consistently rejected the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, accusing Pakistan of misusing the dispute mechanism to stall Indian projects.

The ruling, Islamabad noted, was especially significant given India’s recent suspension of the treaty and its boycott of the arbitration proceedings.

The diplomatic appeal came amid escalating rhetoric from Pakistan’s leadership. Speaking to the Pakistani diaspora in Tampa, Florida, Munir threatened to destroy Indian infrastructure if water flows were curtailed, warning: “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.”

On Monday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari issued a similar warning, declaring that “another war may end with Pakistan taking back all its six rivers from India.”