Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday warned India against proceeding with its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, saying, “The Indus is ours and will remain ours—either our water will flow through it, or their blood.”
Addressing a public gathering in Sukkur, he said the Indus was under attack from India. Maintaining that India falsely blamed a terrorist incident in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Islamabad, he stressed that Pakistan strongly condemned terrorism, as it had suffered the worst from it.
Accusing Modi of levelling false allegations against Pakistan to hide his own failures, Bhutto-Zardari said that his party would struggle against the Indus Water Treaty suspension just as it had the proposed Cholistan canals project. “The people of Pakistan are brave—we will stand up to India with full force, and our armed forces will give a befitting response at the borders,” he added.
He said it was unacceptable for India to decide it no longer recognized the Indus Waters Treaty and expect that to become a reality. “Such a decision will neither be accepted at the international level nor by the people of Pakistan,” he said, calling on the nation to unite in this difficult time and give a befitting response to India.
He said the struggle to protect the river would continue until India withdrew its unilateral decision. He affirmed that the PPP stood with Prime Minister Shehbaz against India’s aggression.
Cholistan canals
Earlier, the PPP leader congratulated the participants of the rally for the federal government’s decision to not build any new canals on the Indus without consensus in the Council of Common Interests (CCI). He said the PPP and the PMLN had inked an agreement in this regard, adding it was now “official policy” of the Government of Pakistan that all new canals would require mutual consent of all provinces.
Paying tribute to PPP workers who had protested against the project, he said this “victory” could not have been achieved without them.
He noted that prior to the prime minister’s commitment, decisions on the construction of new canals could rely on majority votes. He said the prime minister had agreed that any project lacking consensus would be referred back to the ministries concerned. He emphasized that the agreement between him and the prime minister had clearly affirmed that all provinces had rightful claims over water and that both the Water Accord, 1991, and the 2018 Water Policy were based on mutual consensus.