ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Pakistan and India will hold talks on various aspects of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in Lahore on 20 and 21 March.
The meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) will take place nearly six months after New Delhi decided to suspend talks on the pact in view of the Uri terror attack. The meeting is being held “as the IWT, 1960 makes it mandatory” to hold parleys under the pact at least once in a fiscal.
India’s Indus water commissioner and MEA officials will be part of the Indian delegation for the annual meeting. The last meeting of the PIC was held in May 2015 in New Delhi.
India had on Friday downplayed its participation in an upcoming meeting in Pakistan to discuss sharing of Indus river water, saying it does not amount to resumption of government-level India-Pakistan talks.
The commission, which has officials from both the countries as its members, was set up under the treaty to discuss and resolve issues relating to its implementation. It is mandated to meet alternately in India and Pakistan. INP