However, Pakistan stirred a hornet’s nest by stating that it would “exercise the right to put all bilateral agreements with India, including but not limited to the Simla Agreement, in abeyance, until India ceases from its obvious behavior of promoting terror in Pakistan.”
On the back foot and with no other option, Pakistan’s highest committee on security met today and, after an hours-long discussion, decided to reciprocate India’s actions following the terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir. Islamabad, however, threatened to suspend all agreements, including the Simla pact, which recognizes the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
In retaliation, Islamabad suspended the permits given to Indians under the SAARC visa exemption scheme and all other visas, just like India did a day before. It also was decided to reduce the number of Indian diplomats in the High Commission to 30, again in line with an announcement made by India yesterday.
PAKISTAN’S RESPONSE TO INDUS TREATY SUSPENSION
But on the losing end of India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, Pakistan has said this, “Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power.”
Pakistan is truly facing a grim scenario if any diversion or stoppage of the Indus and the other two rivers flowing into the country-Jhelum and Chenab is carried through. It would lead to dislocation of tens of millions of people. Pakistan is already facing a severe water crisis, and such a blow will cripple the state of Pakistan.
THREAT TO SIMLA AGREEMENT
But Pakistan has stirred a hornet’s nest with its claim that “Pakistan shall exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India including but not limited to Simla Agreement in abeyance, till India desists from its manifested behaviour of fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan.”
This announcement is significant because the Simla Agreement, which was signed after the 1971 war, made provision for the ceasefire line to be known as the Line of Control or LoC – where the two nations’ armies are stationed. Should Pakistan put the Simla Agreement in abeyance, it will cast a question on the validity of the Line of Control.
Following India’s measures in connection to the Pahalgam terror attacks, Pakistan has undertaken the following steps in response:
Wagah Border Post is to be shut down forthwith. No exception is to be entertained regarding the suspension of cross-border transit from India through this route. Those who have crossed with valid endorsements may return through that route immediately, but not later than 30 April 2025.
Pakistan suspends all visas issued to Indian nationals under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and cancels them with immediate effect, except for Sikh religious pilgrims. Indian nationals presently in Pakistan under the SVES are told to leave within 48 hours, other than Sikh pilgrims.
The airspace of Pakistan will remain closed with immediate effect to all Indian owned or operated air carriers.
The trade with India, including import and export or transshipment by or through Pakistan, is suspended immediately.
The statement further said that the “armed forces of Pakistan have always been and will remain fully capable and prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity” and added, “We will never allow any one to transgress our sovereignty, security, dignity and their inalienable rights.”
As yet, India has not reacted to this Pakistani statement nor has it clarified its stand with respect to the threat made by Islamabad to suspend the Simla Agreement.
Pakistan-Pakistan relations: The weather system above the cockpit is such that the air is on the course to be cleared; for assimilation, circulated there will be no industrial action from this very moment. For CNN’s efforts, Nishat Ramukganboone said Air Pak wrestler persons and their illustrious commercial heads were just before the war.
Trade has also been halted with India, and included in the report is the objection to India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty. The source from PTI said, “Every imposition will automatically be considered an act of war.”
The Pakistani authorities had also asked the Indian military attachés at the High Commission to leave by April 30, as per reports by PTI.
India has announced a raft of measures downgrading bilateral relations with Pakistan in the aftermath of terrorists killing 26 people at a popular tourist destination in Kashmir, which was among the deadliest attacks on civilians in this country in almost two decades.
“During a special meeting of the security cabinet, the cross-border connections to the attack were brought to light and decided there was a need to act against Pakistan,” the foreign secretary Vikram Misri said at a briefing to the media.
One of the measures was to suspend the Indo-Pak Indus Waters Treaty with immediate effect. This is a vital treaty regarding the sharing of the Indus river system.
The foreign secretary Vikram Misri stated that the defence advisers at the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi had been declared persona non grata and ordered to leave.
He furthermore declared that the Indian high commission in Islamabad would be reduced from 55 staff to only 30 staff.
With immediate effect, the busiest crossing point along the Indo-Pak border would be closed, and Pakistani visitors would not be permitted to enter India under the previously established Special Visa arrangement, added Misri.
Along with that, numerous Pakistani nationals had started repatriating home on Thursday via the Attari-Wagah land route in Amritsar, after the Centre’s 48-hour ultimatum given to them.
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