Pakistan’s portrayal at the UN Human Rights Council of India’s abeyance of the Indus Waters Treaty as an existential threat overlooks the 1960 treaty’s allocation of roughly 80 percent of basin waters (about 135 MAF) to Pakistan versus 33 MAF to India, a deal India has honoured through multiple wars and crises while Pakistan has used dispute mechanisms to delay compliant Indian projects such as Baglihar and Kishanganga.

Pakistan’s water challenges stem primarily from self-inflicted losses—around 35 MAF flowing unused to the sea annually and large seepage and operational losses in canals—exceeding India’s entire entitlement, rather than from Indian withholding, rendering claims of scarcity a matter of domestic governance and infrastructure failure.

India placed the treaty in abeyance after the 2025 Pahalgam attack until Pakistan ends cross-border terrorism, arguing that a pact premised on friendly relations cannot function normally amid sponsorship of violence; any modernisation must be reciprocal, impose consequences for obstruction and terrorism, and prioritise Pakistan’s internal reforms in storage and irrigation over external campaigns.

Pakistan has once again taken the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) to Geneva. At the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, it portrayed the abeyance of the Indus Waters Treaty as an existential Indian threat and urged the United Nations to guard against unilateral action over it. Its Foreign Minister had earlier warned of “serious implications” for regional peace if Pakistan’s water share were affected. The narrative is plain: India is the water aggressor and Pakistan the helpless downstream victim. However, the record tells a different story: a treaty exceptionally generous to Pakistan, large self-inflicted water losses, and a long pattern of using dispute-resolution mechanisms to delay lawful Indian projects.

The 80–20 bargain: generosity, not grievance

Any serious discussion must begin with the arithmetic. Under the 1960 treaty, India received about 33 million acre-feet (MAF) of annual flow from the eastern rivers, while Pakistan was........

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