ISLAMABAD, 24 May 2005 — Pakistan yesterday said bilateral discussions with India were finished on the controversial Baglihar hydropower project on the Chenab River in the disputed Kashmir territory.
“Now we have passed that stage where we could discuss the issue bilaterally,” Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters at a weekly briefing.
Pakistan says construction of the dam is in violation of a water treaty it had signed with India in 1960, brokered by the World Bank.
Following a request by Pakistan, the World Bank early this month appointed a Swiss civil engineer as a neutral expert to examine the issue and give findings which would be binding on both the South Asian countries.
An Indian newspaper claimed in a report Sunday that India was willing to consider “some technical changes” in the design of the Baglihar project provided it could be done without compromising power generation and the safety of the dam.
“Now the best thing would be to cooperate with the neutral expert and let him come up with the findings,” Jilani said.
The 1960 Indus Water Treaty distributes water from six rivers all flowing from the Indian-administered Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
