What Is the Indus Waters Treaty? Why Pakistan Called It an 'Act of War' at the UN

What is the Indus Waters Treaty? It is the 1960 water-sharing agreement between India and Pakistan — brokered by the World Bank — that has governed the rivers of the Indus system for over six decades, surviving wars and crises that broke almost every other pact between the two countries. On September 25, 2026, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly that any attempt by India to stop or divert Pakistan's share of the Indus waters would be treated as an 'act of war'.

The warning came months after India placed the treaty in abeyance following the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. Here is what the treaty actually says, why it matters, and where the standoff goes from here.

What happened at the UN General Assembly

Addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, September 25, Sharif devoted a significant part of his speech to the water dispute. 'Any attempt to stop, impede or divert Pakistan's share of the waters will be treated as an act of war. India must make no mistake about it,' he said, calling the shared waters of the Indus system the 'lifeblood' not only of Pakistan but of the entire region.

He argued that India's decision to hold the treaty in abeyance had 'no legal basis whatsoever', claimed India's position had been rejected by UN experts and the Court of Arbitration, and asserted that Pakistan's stand — that the treaty 'remains valid, binding and fully operative' — had been vindicated. 'Water must never be weaponised. Rivers should nourish nations, not divide them,' he added.

As The Indian Express reported, an Indian diplomat in the audience was seen dismissing the remarks with a smile and a shake of the head — and India later exercised its Right of Reply to rebut Pakistan's claims. Sharif also used the speech to revisit the four-day military clash of 2025 and reiterate Pakistan's position on Kashmir.

What the Indus Waters Treaty actually is

Signed on September 19, 1960, by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ayub Khan with the World Bank as broker, the Indus Waters Treaty is one of the most durable water-sharing agreements in the world. It divides the six rivers of the Indus system: the three eastern rivers — the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — were allocated to India for unrestricted use, while the three western rivers — the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — were allocated to Pakistan, with India permitted limited uses such as irrigation, hydropower generation (run-of-the-river projects) and domestic use under strict design conditions. The treaty created the Permanent Indus Commission, with commissioners from both countries meeting regularly, and a tiered dispute-resolution mechanism running from bilateral talks to a neutral expert and finally a Court of Arbitration. What makes it remarkable is its resilience: it survived the wars of 1965 and 1971, the Kargil conflict of 1999 and every subsequent crisis — until now.

“Any attempt to stop, impede or divert Pakistan's share of the waters will be treated as an act of war. India must make no mistake about it.”

Why India put the treaty in abeyance

In April 2025, after the terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 tourists were killed — an attack New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based groups, a charge Islamabad denied — India announced it was holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance 'with immediate effect'. New Delhi's position has been that the treaty, premised on goodwill and friendship, cannot operate normally while cross-border terrorism continues, and that Pakistan's obstruction of India's legitimate projects on the western rivers — including the Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects, which have been through both the neutral-expert and Court of Arbitration processes — had already strained the mechanism. Pakistan, for its part, maintains there is no provision in the treaty for unilateral suspension and that it remains fully operative — the position Sharif repeated at the UN, citing the Court of Arbitration and UN experts as backing. Dawn's coverage of the address noted Sharif also praised then-US President Donald Trump's role in brokering the May 2025 ceasefire after the four-day conflict, a reminder of how close the water dispute sits to the region's military tripwire.

Why the rivers — and Kashmir — are at the centre of it

The geography is what makes this dispute so combustible. The Indus, Jhelum and Chenab all rise in or flow through Jammu and Kashmir before entering Pakistan — which means India's upstream projects on these rivers sit in the very territory at the heart of the Kashmir dispute. For Pakistan, where the Indus system irrigates the bulk of its farmland and feeds its cities, any upstream interference is an existential question, not a diplomatic one.

For India, the abeyance is leverage: a signal that the era of compartmentalising water cooperation from security concerns is over. This is also why the row is driving a spike in 'is Kashmir safe to visit' searches. The honest answer for travellers is that the water dispute has not changed anything on the ground for tourism — Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam continue to receive visitors, and the Line of Control remains far from the tourist circuit. But the rhetoric matters: when prime ministers talk about 'acts of war' over rivers, it colours the anxiety that potential visitors feel, even when the houseboats on Dal Lake are business as usual.

What happens next

As of September 29, 2026, neither side is backing down rhetorically. Pakistan will keep pressing its case in international forums — the Court of Arbitration track and the UN system — while India will continue treating the abeyance as a settled sovereign decision linked to terrorism. The practical question is what India actually does with the waters: building storage and diversion infrastructure on the western rivers takes years, so the immediate effect of the abeyance is political and legal rather than hydrological.

Mathrubhumi's report on the address captured the core of Pakistan's warning — that any physical interference with flows would be treated as an act of war — which sets up the most dangerous scenario: a future Indian project on the Chenab or Jhelum being read in Islamabad as a casus belli. For now, the treaty exists in a strange limbo — suspended by one party, insisted upon by the other — and the UNGA exchange guarantees it stays at the top of the India-Pakistan agenda.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Indus Waters Treaty?

The Indus Waters Treaty is a 1960 water-sharing agreement between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank and signed on September 19, 1960. It allocates the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India and the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan, with limited permitted uses for India on the western rivers. It survived every India-Pakistan war until India placed it in abeyance in 2025.

Why did Pakistan's PM call it an 'act of war' at the UN?

On September 25, 2026, addressing the 81st UN General Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif warned that 'any attempt to stop, impede or divert Pakistan's share of the waters will be treated as an act of war', after India held the treaty in abeyance following the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack. He called the Indus waters the region's 'lifeblood' and said India's suspension had no legal basis.

Can India legally suspend the Indus Waters Treaty?

This is the core dispute. India says the treaty, premised on goodwill, cannot function amid cross-border terrorism and has held it in abeyance. Pakistan says the treaty has no provision for unilateral suspension and remains 'valid, binding and fully operative' — a position Sharif claims has been backed by UN experts and the Court of Arbitration. There is no settled international ruling on the abeyance itself.

Which rivers does the treaty cover?

All six rivers of the Indus system: the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — allocated to India, and the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — allocated to Pakistan. The western rivers flow through Jammu and Kashmir before entering Pakistan, which is why the dispute is inseparable from Kashmir.

Is Kashmir safe to visit amid the water dispute?

The diplomatic standoff has not affected tourist areas on the ground — Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam remain open to visitors and the Line of Control is far from the tourist circuit. However, the heated rhetoric can affect traveller confidence, so it is worth checking current advisories before planning a Kashmir trip.

Sources