Farooq Abdullah hails Indus treaty suspension, says Jammu may now get more water

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) Describing it as the time to act, former Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday backed the Narendra Modi government’s decision to stop Indus water supply to Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

“We’ve been saying for years that this treaty should be renegotiated,” Abdullah, president of the National Conference party, told IANS.

“We are generating power from that water, but their people come and monitor. The water is ours. We have a right to it,” he said, supporting the Indian government’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), an agreement that has governed water-sharing arrangements with Pakistan for decades.

The suspension of IWT is one of the strong measures taken by India after flagging ‘Pakistan links’ to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 people were killed.

Abdullah hoped the suspension of the IWT would help meet the growing demand in the Jammu region.

“We already have a water shortage in Jammu. In my time, a Rs 200-crore plan was built to bring water from Chenab to Delhi but the World Bank did not approve that. Today I believe it is the right time to work on the water issue so that Jammu can get water. It’s our own water and we’re not even using it. This treaty must be renegotiated,” he said.

The former J&K CM also took up cudgels on behalf of Pakistani nationals in the Valley who are facing problems after the Indian government directed them to return.

“These people have been living here for 50 years. Women are married, have children, and now they are being sent to Pakistan. No one is accepting them there either. Pakistan is not accepting them. They are sitting on the border. The border is closed. Now, they are neither here nor there,” said Abdullah.

Urging an early decision on the fate of stranded Pakistanis, he said, “What kind of justice is this? Where will you send them? If Pakistan is not ready to take them, what will they do? Their children are here. They are citizens here. The Prime Minister will have to take a decision on what to do.”

Taking strong measures after the Pahalgam attack, the Indian government banned Pakistani nationals from travelling to India under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) visas. Any SVES visas issued in the past to Pakistani nationals were also deemed cancelled. All Pakistani nationals present in the country under SVES visa were told to leave India.

--IANS

rch/uk