Will not allow India to weaponise water, says Shahbaz Sharif at Dushanbe meet

File photograph: Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif on Friday rejected the “weaponisation of water” and warned that Pakistan would not allow India to cross the purple line by holding the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance and endangering hundreds of thousands of lives for slender political positive factors.Sharif was addressing a three-day International Conference on Glaciers’ Preservation in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe when he raked up the difficulty.“India’s unilateral and illegal decision to hold in abeyance the IWT, which governs the sharing of the Indus Basin’s water, is deeply regrettable,” Dawn quoted Sharif as saying.“Millions of lives must not be held hostage to narrow political gains, and Pakistan will not allow this. We will never allow the red line to be crossed,” the PM informed the convention attended by over 2,500 delegates from 80 UN member states and 70 worldwide organisations.The occasion was hosted by Tajikistan govt in collaboration with UN, Unesco, WMO, Asian Development Bank, and different key companions. Sharif’s remarks got here after India, quickly after the April 22 terrorist assault in Pahalgam, introduced abeyance of the IWT amongst different punitive measures. The IWT was signed in 1960 by the 2 international locations to handle the water dispute between them and to share the waters of the six foremost rivers of the Indus basin.