Militants have Pakistan's police in their crosshairs 

A police officer looks outside the window of a gate at Achini's outpost, in the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, February 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 27 February 2023
Follow

Militants have Pakistan's police in their crosshairs 

  • Killings of policemen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rose to 119 last year, from 54 in 2021 and 21 in 2020
  • Some 102 have been slain already this year, most in a mosque bombing but some in other attacks

BARA, Pakistan: Atop a police outpost in northwest Pakistan, Faizanullah Khan stands behind a stack of sandbags and peers through the sight of an anti-aircraft gun, scanning the terrain along the unofficial boundary with the country's restive former tribal areas. 

On this cold and rainy February morning, he was looking not for aircraft but for fighters behind attacks against his force, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial police. 

It was daytime, so he could relax a bit, said Khan, an assistant sub-inspector, as he sat down on a traditional woven bed. But night was a different story, he said, pointing to pock marks left by bullets fired at the outpost, named Manzoor Shaheed, or Manzoor the Martyr, after a colleague felled by insurgents years ago. 

The outpost is one of dozens that provide defence against militants waging a fresh assault on Pakistan's police from hideouts in the border region adjoining Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The area, part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, is a hotbed for fighters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organisation of militant groups.

The threat the insurgency poses to nuclear-armed Pakistan was illustrated last month when the bombing of a mosque in Peshawar killed more than 80 police personnel. A faction of the TTP, Jamat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility. 

Visiting northwest Pakistan this month, Reuters gained access to police outposts and spoke to more than a dozen people, including senior police officials, many of whom described how the force is suffering increasing losses as it bears the brunt of insurgent attacks while contending with resourcing and logistical constraints. 

Pakistani officials acknowledge these challenges but say they are trying to improve the force's capability amid adverse economic circumstances. 




A police officer rappels off a building during a practice session at the Elite Police Training Centre in Nowshera, Pakistan, February 10, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)

'Stopped their way' 

Police here have fought militants for years -- more than 2,100 personnel have been killed and 7,000 injured since 2001 -- but never have they been the focus of militants' operations as they are today. 

"We've stopped their way to Peshawar," assistant sub-inspector Jameel Shah of Sarband station, which controls the Manzoor Shaheed outpost, said of the militants. 

Sarband and its eight outposts have suffered four major attacks in recent months and faced sniper fire with unprecedented frequency, according to police based there. 

Killings of police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa rose to 119 last year, from 54 in 2021 and 21 in 2020. Some 102 have been slain already this year, most in the mosque bombing but some in other attacks. Elsewhere, militants stormed a police office in Karachi on Feb. 17, killing four before security forces retook the premises and killed three assailants. 

The TTP, known as the Pakistani Taliban, pledges allegiance to the Afghan Taliban but is not directly a part of the group that rules in Kabul. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan. 

A TTP spokesman, Muhammad Khurasani, told Reuters its main target was Pakistan's military, but the police were standing in the way. 

"The police have been told many times not to obstruct our way, and instead of paying heed to this the police have started martyring our comrades," he said. "This is why we are targeting them." 

The military has conducted operations alongside the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police and faced TTP attacks, with one soldier confirmed dead in the province this year, according to data released by the military's public relations wing, which did not address questions from Reuters about military casualties. 

In December, the TTP released a video purportedly recorded by one of its fighters from mountains around the capital, Islamabad, showing Pakistan's parliament building. "We are coming," said a note held by the unidentified fighter. 

The TTP wants to show that its fighters can strike outside their current areas of influence, said Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based think tank. While their ability may be limited, he said, "propaganda is a big part of this war and the TTP are getting good at it". 




Police officers hold their weapons during a training session at the Elite Police Training Centre in Nowshera, Pakistan, February 10, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)

'Sitting ducks' 

The police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which neighbours Islamabad, say they are up for the fight, but point to a lack of resources. 

"The biggest problem is the number of personnel, which is a little low," said Shah, of Sarband station, which has 55 people -- including drivers and clerks -- for the station and eight affiliated outposts. "This is a target area, and we're absolutely face-to-face with (the militants)." 

Days before Reuters visited Sarband, a senior police official was ambushed and killed outside the station during a firefight with militants. The attack demonstrated the firepower of the insurgents, who, according to Shah, used thermal goggles to target the officer in darkness. 

It wasn't the first time. About a year ago, the TTP released a video of its snipers using thermal imaging to take out unsuspecting security personnel. 

Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters about the insurgency, told local TV this month that militants saw the police as "soft targets" because their public-facing role made it easier to penetrate their facilities. 

Zahid Hussain, a journalist and author of books on militancy, said the police were more vulnerable than the military, given their resources and training. 

"I mean, they're sitting ducks there," Hussain said. 




People pray for the victims who were killed in a suicide bombing in January, in a mosque that was partially damaged during the attack in the Police Lines area in Peshawar, Pakistan, February 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)

'Lethal weapons' 

Moazzam Jah Ansari, who was chief of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's police when he spoke to Reuters this month but has since been replaced, said militant strategies had been evolving.

"They try and find more effective ways to conduct military operations, more lethal weapons," he said. 

Militants have procured U.S.-made M4 rifles and other sophisticated weapons from stocks left by Western forces that exited Afghanistan in 2021, police officials said. Some police guards told Reuters they had seen small reconnaissance drones flying over their outposts. 

Khurasani, the TTP spokesman, confirmed that the group was using drones for surveillance. 

Several police officials at Sarband station said the provincial government and military provided them and other outposts with thermal goggles in late January to aid the fight. But they encountered another problem. 

"About 22 hours of the day we have power outages... there's no electricity to charge our goggles," Shah told Reuters at Sarband. 

The station has one rooftop solar panel, which officers paid out of their own pockets to install, according to station chief Qayyum Khan. One policeman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of disciplinary action, said police use their vehicles or go to a petrol station equipped with a back-up generator to charge their goggles. 

Police said they had taken other protection measures, including erecting rudimentary walls to guard against sniper fire, and procuring bulletproof glass from a market that sells equipment left behind by U.S.-led forces. 




Imam Noor ul Ameen, 35, who is also a police employee, holds his palms as he leads a prayer for the victims who were killed in a suicide bombing in January, in a mosque that was partially damaged during the attack in the Police Lines area, in Peshawar, Pakistan, February 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)

Economic conditions 

Reuters spoke to four other senior officials and more than a dozen lower-ranking officers, all of whom said the provincial force was neglected despite its key role. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of disciplinary action. 

Required resources were not forthcoming, and their pay and perks were inferior to that of counterparts elsewhere in Pakistan, let alone the military, these officials told Reuters. 

"Do the police need more resources? They absolutely do," said Taimur Jhagra, who was provincial finance minister until January, when a caretaker administration took over ahead of elections. 

Jhagra said his government helped the police as much as it could with pay raises and procuring equipment such as goggles, despite fiscal constraints. Pakistan's debt-ridden economy has been in a tailspin for over a year, and the country is trying to slash spending to avoid default. 

"Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa pays a greater price for that" because of its exposure to the militants, he said. 

Ansari, the former police chief, said resources had improved, but tended to come reactively when a threat emerged, rather than as sustained support. He, too, attributed this to economic circumstances, but added that things were not as bad as some suggested. 

'Seething anger' 

After Western forces left Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan sought a truce with the TTP, resulting in a months-long ceasefire and negotiations brokered by the Afghan Taliban. As part of the effort, many militants from Afghanistan were resettled in Pakistan. 

The TTP ended the ceasefire in November 2022, and regrouped militants restarted attacks in Pakistan soon after. 

Following the Peshawar bombing, police personnel held public protests where some voiced anger against their leadership, the provincial and national governments, and even the military, calling for more resources and clarity on the policy of fighting the militants. Ansari acknowledged a "deep sense of loss" and "seething anger" in the force in the wake of the attack. 

At the site of the blast, police personnel gathered on a recent day to remember their fallen comrades. The imam, a police employee who lost his brother in the attack, prayed for the success of the force. 

Behind the mosque, Daulat Khan, an assistant sub-inspector, and eight relatives live in cramped police quarters comprising a 25-square-metre space with only one room. Around him are crumbling, blast-damaged walls. 

"Everyone can see the sacrifices of the police, but nothing is done for us," he said, pointing to rows of century-old, British-colonial era quarters. "You see the conditions in front of you." 

Outside, open sewage canals lined the alleyways. 




A billboard with photos of police officers who died in the line of duty is seen in the Police Lines area, Peshawar, Pakistan, February 9, 2023. (Photo courtesy: REUTERS)

Different battle 

Pakistan's military effectively dismantled the TTP and killed most of its top leadership in a string of operations from 2014 onwards, driving most of the fighters into Afghanistan, where they regrouped. 

But the nature of the fight has changed in recent months, which partly shows why the police, not the military, are at the forefront. The militants were now spread in smaller groups across the country and among the civilian population, instead of operating from bases in former tribal areas, analysts said.  

The military has also been stretched by another insurgency in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where separatists are targeting state infrastructure and Chinese investments. 

The defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment about the armed forces' role in resisting militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. 

Miles from the flashpoints, meanwhile, police graduates receive six-month crash courses in anti-militant operations at the vast Elite Police Training Centre in Nowshera. 

The personnel, including women, learn how to conduct raids, rappel from buildings and use rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns, which they unleash on a model of a militant training camp. 

But beyond the training school's walls, there is no stationary militant camp, attacks come at night, and police are often on their own. 

Faizanullah Khan said that, on some nights at his outpost, militants call out to him or his fellow guards. "They say 'we see you; lay down your arms'," he said. 

The guards sometimes reply, he said, by firing their guns into the darkness.


Pakistan plans naval, air collaboration in unmanned systems to boost indigenous capabilities

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan plans naval, air collaboration in unmanned systems to boost indigenous capabilities

  • The development comes weeks after a four-day Pakistan-India military standoff, which saw a widescale use of drones by them
  • Small-scale drone attacks can strike targets without risking defense personnel or provoking uncontrollable military escalation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s naval and air forces will be undertaking a strategic collaboration to advance indigenous capabilities in unmanned warfare systems, the country’s military said on Monday, citing Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf.
The development comes weeks after a four-day military standoff between Pakistan and India, in which the two countries traded fighter jet, missile, drone and artillery fire, leaving 70 people dead on both sides before a United States-brokered ceasefire on May 10.
The fighting in May marked the first time New Delhi and Islamabad utilized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at scale against each other, with defense analysts expecting increased use of UAVs by them in future as small-scale drone attacks can strike targets without risking personnel or provoking uncontrollable escalation.
During a visit to Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) Air War College Institute in Karachi, Naval Chief Ashraf announced the initiation of more frequent, integrated joint operational exercises with PAF, aimed at further reinforcing synergy and interoperability between the two services.
“The Naval Chief also highlighted the transformative role of technological innovation in contemporary conflicts. Citing the growing significance of Unmanned Aerial Systems, he highlighted an upcoming strategic collaboration between the National Aerospace Science & Technology Park (NASTP) and Pakistan Maritime Science & Technology Park (PMSTP),” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said in a statement.
“This partnership, he noted, will focus on advancing indigenous capabilities in unmanned systems, thereby bolstering Pakistan’s technological self-reliance and operational edge in the defense sector.”
The development comes as the two South Asian neighbors, which spent more than $96 billion on defense last year, appear to be locked in a drones arms race.
India plans to invest heavily in local industry and could spend as much as $470 million on UAVs over the next 12 to 24 months, roughly three times pre-conflict levels, Smit Shah of Drone Federation India, which represents over 550 companies and regularly interacts with the government, told Reuters last month.
The PAF, meanwhile, is pushing to acquire more UAVs as it seeks to avoid risking its high-end aircraft, Reuters quoted a Pakistani source familiar with the matter as saying.
Pakistan and India both deployed cutting-edge 4.5 generation fighter jets during the latest clashes but cash-strapped Islamabad only has about 20 high-end Chinese-made J-10 fighters compared to the three dozen Rafales that Delhi can muster.
Pakistan is likely to build on existing relationships to intensify collaboration with China and Turkiye to advance domestic drone research and production capabilities.
Speaking to participants of an air war course in Karachi, Admiral Ashraf underscored that operational preparedness remains the cornerstone of triumph in modern warfare.
“He referenced recent developments along the eastern front as a vivid illustration of the critical need for constant readiness and strategic foresight,” the ISPR said.
“Emphasizing the imperative of cohesive national defense, he stressed the importance of inter-services collaboration in achieving strategic objectives.”
India and Pakistan, bitter rivals since they gained independence in 1947 from British rule, have fought three wars, including two over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
The latest crisis was also triggered by an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-backed militants without offering any evidence. Islamabad denied the allegation.


Pakistan to consider extending deadline for Afghan refugees facing mass deportation

Updated 30 June 2025
Follow

Pakistan to consider extending deadline for Afghan refugees facing mass deportation

  • Any extension approved by the government would be a relief for those previously ordered to return to Afghanistan by June 30
  • In 2023, Pakistan had launched a controversial crackdown on foreigners it said were in the country illegally, mostly Afghans

PESHAWAR: Pakistan will consider extending the deadline for 1.4 million Afghan refugees living legally in the country to return home, officials said on Monday.

Any extension approved by the government would be a relief for those who were previously ordered to return to Afghanistan by June 30, according to government and security officials. A decision could come on Tuesday when the Cabinet is due to meet.

In 2023, Pakistan launched a controversial crackdown on foreigners it said were in the country illegally, mostly Afghans. Millions of Afghans have fled their homeland over the decades to escape war or poverty.

The officials — who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media on the record — said the proposed extension was to allow the refugees more time to settle their personal affairs in Pakistan, such as selling property or wrapping up business activities, before returning to Afghanistan in an orderly and dignified way.

A senior ministry official said the decision to submit the extension proposal was made last week. A summary regarding the fate of the Afghan refugees has been forwarded for inclusion in the Cabinet agenda.

The Interior Ministry, which has overseen the sweeping crackdown on Afghans, did not immediately comment.

There was no comment from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which previously said it expected Afghan authorities to create “conducive conditions” so those returning were fully integrated into Afghan society.

Earlier this year, Pakistan said it wanted 3 million Afghans to leave the country, including 1.4 million people with Proof of Registration cards and some 800,000 with Afghan Citizen Cards. There are a further 1 million Afghans in the country illegally because they have no paperwork, according to officials.

They said Pakistan’s Ministry of States and Frontier Regions submitted a proposal to the federal government recommending a six-month extension for Afghans with Proof of Registration cards.

Pakistan’s expulsion campaign has drawn strong criticism from the UN and rights organizations.

Human Rights Watch has accused authorities of arbitrarily detaining and forcibly deporting Afghans, many of whom, they say, face harassment under the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

On Saturday, the UN refugee agency said at least 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year. It warned that repatriations on a massive scale have the potential to destabilize the fragile situation in Afghanistan.


Pakistani mango festival in Abu Dhabi promotes exports, celebrates Gulf demand

Updated 30 June 2025
Follow

Pakistani mango festival in Abu Dhabi promotes exports, celebrates Gulf demand

  • Pakistan is world’s fourth-largest mango producer, Gulf countries receive 75% exports
  • Festival in Abu Dhabi aims to promote trade while also strengthening Pakistan-UAE ties

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s embassy in the United Arab Emirates held a mango festival in Abu Dhabi to promote the country’s prized fruit exports, as demand for Pakistani mangoes continues to surge across the Gulf region, the mission said in a statement on Monday. 

The “Pakistani Mango Festival 2025,” hosted at the Le Royal Meridien Hotel in partnership with the Overseas Pakistani Foundation on Sunday, drew a large gathering of Emirati dignitaries, diplomats, business leaders, and members of the Pakistani expatriate community, the embassy said in a statement.

Different varities of mangoes are at display at the “Pakistani Mango Festival 2025” in Abu Dhabi on June 29, 2025. (Pakistan Embassy in UAE)

Pakistan is the world’s fourth-largest mango producer, according to the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), with an annual output of around 1.8 million tons. In 2023, the country exported over 125,000 tons of mangoes, generating nearly $100 million in revenue, official data shows.

Approximately 75% of Pakistan’s mango exports are shipped to the Gulf region. 

“Festivals like the Mango Festival not only celebrate our agricultural excellence but also build bridges of understanding and friendship between the people of Pakistan and the UAE,” the statement said, quoting Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UAE, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, as saying during the event.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UAE, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, is addressing the “Pakistani Mango Festival 2025” in Abu Dhabi on June 29, 2025. (Pakistan Embassy in UAE)

Popular varieties such as Sindhri, Chaunsa, Anwar Ratol, and Langra were on display and served at the festival, offering guests a taste of Pakistan’s agricultural richness.

The UAE is home to more than 1.7 million Pakistanis, one of the largest overseas communities, and serves as a key market and transit point for Pakistani agricultural exports to the broader Middle East.

Mango season in Pakistan typically runs from May to September, with exports peaking between June and August. 


India-Pakistan conflict hits shared love of film, music

Updated 30 June 2025
Follow

India-Pakistan conflict hits shared love of film, music

  • India and Pakistan banned artists, YouTube channels from each other’s countries after their militaries fought in May 
  • While Bollywood movies have always been popular in Pakistan, Indians love music, drama serials produced by Pakistan

LAHORE: While conflict raged between the powerful militaries of India and Pakistan, a battle was also fought on the cultural front lines despite years of shared love for films and music.

The deadly fighting in early May — the worst in decades — affected artists previously untouched by animosity between their leaders.

Ali Gul Pir, a Pakistani rapper and comedian with a huge Indian following, released a song years ago mocking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While he was spared consequences then, in May, his YouTube channel and Instagram profile were blocked in India.

“Indians now recognize that the digital space serves as a bridge between Pakistanis and Indians, and they seem intent on severing that connection,” Pir told AFP.

In this photograph taken on June 17, 2025, a man looks at a film poster, Love Guru, featuring Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, outside a cineplex in Lahore. (AFP)

The collapse in bilateral relations was caused by a deadly April attack on tourists in India-administered Kashmir, which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad.

Pakistan denied the allegation and, after tit-for-tat diplomatic retaliation, their militaries fought for four days before a ceasefire was reached.

The conflict hit the music industry for the first time, with Pakistani singer Annural Khalid also remembering how her Indian following dropped off.

“Delhi was my top listening city before the ban,” said Khalid, who has 3.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

“I suffered a great loss in the audience” from India, she told AFP.

“Listeners were deprived of content because music was turned into something it is not,” Khalid added.

In this photograph taken on May 29, 2025, Pakistan's pop singer Annural Khalid sings inside her studio in Lahore. While conflict raged between the powerful militaries of India and Pakistan, a battle was also fought on the cultural front lines despite years of shared love for films and music. (AFP)

The conflict also scrubbed out some prior exchanges, such as the soundtrack of the 2017 film “Raees” on Spotify in India.

It now shows only Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, without his Pakistani co-star Mahira Khan.

With Pakistan producing just a handful of movies each year under strict censorship rules, Bollywood has always proven popular among viewers.

“I grew up watching Bollywood. We have the same traumas, we have the same history, we have the same stories,” said Pakistani film critic Sajeer Shaikh.

In this photograph taken on May 23, 2025, Sajeer Shaikh, a Pakistani film critic and content creator, speaks with AFP during an interview in Karachi. (AFP)

Pakistani actors and directors have for decades seen making it to Bollywood as the ultimate recognition.

Indian Bollywood film actresses Sonam Kapoor (C) and Kirron Kher (L), and Pakistani actor Fawad Afzal Khan (2L) watch the daily retreat ceremony performed by Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at India-Pakistan Border Wagah Post on September 17, 2014. (AFP/File)

But this month, Indian star Diljit Dosanjh announced his latest movie, “Sardaar Ji 3,” which features four Pakistani actors, would be released “overseas only,” after New Delhi banned Pakistani content and artists from productions.

“Abir Gulaal,” a love story starring Pakistan’s Fawad Khan and Indian actor Vaani Kapoor, was scheduled to hit Indian cinemas on May 9 but the release was postponed.

Even some in the industry who had previously backed the cross-border artistic trade changed their tune last month.

“Everything should be banned... cricket, films, everything,” said Indian actor Suniel Shetty, who has a big fan following in Pakistan.

In this photograph taken on June 17, 2025, a young boy walks past a film poster, Love Guru, featuring Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, inside a cineplex in Lahore. (AFP)

He starred in the 2004 movie “Main Hoon Na,” which subtly promotes peace between India and Pakistan.

“It’s something really unfortunate about politics, creating that rift and putting boundaries around art,” said Dua Zahra, assistant manager at Warner Bros South Asia’s music label in Pakistan.

As part of its measures in the wake of the Kashmir attack, New Delhi’s ban on some Pakistani YouTube channels included private broadcaster HUM TV.

The channel, which says around 40 percent of its viewers are from India, simply told its fans to use a VPN to continue watching.

Since Modi took office more than a decade ago, many Indian critics and filmmakers have warned that Bollywood is now increasingly promoting his government’s Hindu nationalist ideology.

While the conflict has created divisions on the cultural scene, there are signs that the trade will endure.

Over a month after the ceasefire, three Indian films were in the top 10 on Netflix Pakistan, while the top 20 trending songs in India included two Pakistani tracks.
Pir, the rapper and comedian, vowed to “bridge gaps.”

“Let’s not make war, let’s just make art,” he said.

“Let’s just not bomb each other.”


Pakistan urges India to abide by Indus Waters Treaty after world court’s supplemental award

Updated 30 June 2025
Follow

Pakistan urges India to abide by Indus Waters Treaty after world court’s supplemental award

  • The court ruled that India’s decision of suspending the treaty didn’t affect its competence to adjudicate Pakistan’s complaints
  • The South Asian neighbors have been arguing over hydroelectric projects on the shared Indus river and tributaries for decades

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday urged India to restore the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which ensures water for 80 percent Pakistani farms, and fulfil its obligations, days after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced a supplemental award on the proceedings instituted by Pakistan against India over Indus waters.

India announced it was putting the 1960 World Bank-mediated treaty in abeyance a day after an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan, an allegation Islamabad denies. Pakistan has previously said the treaty has no provision for one side to unilaterally pull back and that any blocking of river water flowing to Pakistan will be considered “an act of war.”

In its supplemental award on the proceedings instituted by Pakistan against India over two hydroelectric projects, the court ruled on June 27 that India’s decision of holding the IWT in abeyance did not deprive the court of its competence to adjudicate Pakistan’s complaints against its neighbor. Pakistan has opposed some of hydroelectric projects by India, saying they violate the World Bank-mediated treaty on the sharing of the Indus waters.

In response to the supplemental award announced by the Court of Arbitration, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the court found hearing the Pakistan-India dispute over Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects found that it has a continuing responsibility to advance these proceedings in a timely, efficient and fair manner.

“The Court of Arbitration decided to announce this supplemental award in the wake of India’s illegal and unilateral announcement to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance,” the Pakistani Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The award vindicates Pakistan’s position that the Indus Waters Treaty remains valid and operational, and that India has no right to take a unilateral action about it. We urge India to immediately resume the normal functioning of the Indus Waters Treaty, and fulfil its treaty obligations, wholly and faithfully.”

Last week, the PCA said it had previously found that once a proceeding before a court of arbitration is properly initiated, as in the present case, “there must be a strong presumption against the incidental loss of jurisdiction over the matters placed before it by subsequent acts, such as the appointment of a neutral expert.”

Weeks after India’s suspension of the treaty, the court issued a procedural order on May 16 and requested the parties to provide written submissions on the effect, if any, of these recent developments before the court.

Pakistan filed written submissions and no submissions were filed by India, but the court said it had considered New Delhi’s position.

“The current phase of the proceedings before the Court concerns the overall interpretation and application of the Treaty’s provisions on hydro-electric project design and operation, as well as the legal effect of past decisions of dispute resolution bodies under the Treaty,” it said.

“Accordingly, the text of the Treaty, read in light of its object and purpose, does not to allow either Party, acting unilaterally, to hold in abeyance or suspend an ongoing dispute settlement process.”

Under the IWT, India has been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run-of-the-river projects on the western rivers subject to specific criteria for design and operation. The pact also gives the right to Pakistan to raise objections to designs of Indian hydroelectric projects on the western rivers.

On July 6, 2023, the PCA had issued its award on competence after considering India’s objections. In a unanimous decision, the court had ruled that it was competent to consider and determine the disputes set forth in

Pakistan’s request for arbitration in the case. Pakistan had initiated the present arbitral proceedings before the court on August 19, 2016.

The South Asian neighbors have been arguing over hydroelectric projects on the shared Indus river and its tributaries for decades, with Pakistan complaining that India’s planned hydropower dams will cut flows on the river, which feeds 80 percent of its irrigated agriculture.

The PCA noted on Friday that the principal issue concerned the implications, if any, that India’s decision to hold the treaty in “abeyance” may have on the competence of the court.

“Paragraph 16 of Annexure G to the Treaty provides that ‘[s]ubject to the provisions of this Treaty and except as the Parties may otherwise agree, the Court shall decide all questions relating to its competence’,” the PCA said.

“Accordingly, the Court found that it was for the Court — and the Court alone — to answer the question before it.”

New Delhi’s halting of the water agreement was one of a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures taken by both countries in the immediate aftermath of the April 22 attack in Kashmir, which resulted in a four-day military conflict between the neighbors in May.