Pakistan, on Wednesday, urged India to engage with it "constructively" within the framework of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), days after New Delhi rejected an order by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that challenged its decision to keep the pact in abeyance.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said his country remained committed to implementing the treaty "in letter and spirit" and called on India to reciprocate. "Pakistan will continue to urge India to reciprocate with the same approach whereby the treaty is upheld in letter and spirit and in its full legal documented provisions," Andrabi said, according to news agency PTI.
He said the Permanent Court of Arbitration had reaffirmed that the IWT remained fully in force and binding. Pakistan would take all possible measures to ensure that the court's decision was fully implemented, he added.
The appeal comes amid a continuing dispute over India's decision to hold the decades-old water-sharing agreement in abeyance.
India had, on Monday, rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration's order setting aside its decision to suspend the treaty, pointing out that the body had no jurisdiction on New Delhi's sovereign decisions.
India had placed the IWT in abeyance as part of the punitive diplomatic and economic measures announced following the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025.
New Delhi has maintained that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan "credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism".
Pakistan approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in March this year to determine the status of the treaty, effectively challenging India's decision.
India, however, has refused to recognise the legal existence of what it describes as an "illegally-constituted and so-called Court of Arbitration".
The ministry of external affairs said the body's establishment itself constituted a "grave violation" of the Indus Waters Treaty and that India had consequently never appeared before it.
"This so called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body," the MEA said.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration had unanimously concluded that none of the grounds it examined could justify the suspension or termination of the treaty.
It said the IWT consequently remained fully in force and that India must observe its obligations under the agreement, including provisions concerning the design and operation of hydroelectric projects on the Western Rivers.
The court also considered India's allegation that Pakistan's sponsorship of cross-border terrorism had impeded India's utilisation of its rights under the treaty.
It said that even if India's allegation were assumed to be true, it would not establish a material breach of the treaty by Pakistan.
