Pakistan on Friday welcomed the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague to issue a \u201cSupplemental Award of Competence\u201d in the Indus Waters case, stating that India cannot unilaterally hold the treaty in abeyance, a statement issued by the government said.<\/p>\n
According to the PCA\u2019s rules, a supplemental award is an additional ruling issued by a court or tribunal after its initial decision, usually to address a specific issue that wasn\u2019t fully resolved or to clarify certain points, such as jurisdiction, competence, or interpretation of a treaty or agreement.<\/p>\n
India in April held the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance following the attack in occupied Kashmir\u2019s Pahalgam that killed 26 \u2014 an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad without evidence. Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an \u201cact of war\u201d, noting the IWT had no provision for unilateral suspension. It later said it was considering court action, citing a violation of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.<\/p>\n
According to the government\u2019s statement, Pakistan welcomed the PCA\u2019s decision and stated that the court affirmed its competence despite India\u2019s unilateral action against the IWT.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan looks forward to receiving the Court\u2019s Award on the First Phase on the Merits in due course following the hearing that was held in Peace Palace in The Hague in July 2024,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe high priority, at this point, is that India and Pakistan find a way back to a meaningful dialogue, including on the application of the Indus Waters Treaty,\u201d the government said, reiterating remarks made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Pakistan was \u201cready to engage in a meaningful dialogue with India on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, water, trade and terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Indian Ministry for External Affairs (MEA) \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d the PCA\u2019s supplemental award and stated that it did not recognise the court itself, according to Indian newspaper The Hindu.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia has never recognised the existence in law of this so-called Court of Arbitration, and India\u2019s position has all along been that the constitution of this so-called arbitral body is in itself a serious breach of the Indus Waters Treaty and consequently any proceedings before this forum and any award or decision taken by it are also for that reason illegal and per se void,\u201d the ministry maintained.<\/p>\n
According to The Hindu, the MEA said that after the Pahalgam attack, India exercised \u201cits rights as a sovereign nation under international law\u201d and placed the IWT in abeyance \u201cuntil Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism\u201d. The ministry additionally described the Court of Arbitration\u2019s latest declarations as a \u201ccharade at Pakistan\u2019s behest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018The treaty remains in force\u2019
\nAccording to a press release from the PCA, the court found that it was not open to India to unilaterally suspend the IWT or hold it in abeyance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court first considered the terms of the Treaty (IWT), which do not provide for the unilateral \u2018abeyance\u2019 or \u2018suspension\u2019 of the Treaty; rather, according to its terms, the Treaty continues in force until terminated with the mutual consent of India and Pakistan,\u201d the press release read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court found that the terms of the Treaty, read in light of the Treaty\u2019s object and purpose, do not allow either Party, acting unilaterally, to hold in abeyance or suspend an ongoing dispute settlement process, given that to do so would fundamentally undermine \u2018the value and efficacy of the Treaty\u2019s compulsory third-party dispute settlement process\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the court proceedings, the PCA noted that it was not open to India to unilaterally hold the IWT in abeyance \u201cregardless of how India\u2019s position was characterised or justified under international law\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan on Friday welcomed the decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague to issue a \u201cSupplemental Award of Competence\u201d in the Indus Waters case, stating that India cannot unilaterally hold the treaty in abeyance, a statement issued by the government said. According to the PCA\u2019s rules, a supplemental award is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10423,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421\/revisions\/10423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}