Lahore/New Delhi: The two-day meeting of Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) between India and Pakistan will be held in Islamabad on Monday.
A 10-member Indian delegation already reached Lahore on Sunday. The delegation, which will take part in the two-day meeting, is led by India's Indus Water Commissioner PK Saxena and comprises of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials and technical experts.
The Pakistan delegation will be headed by Mirza Asif Saeed. Senior Pakistani officials and Indian High Commission officials greeted the delegation at the Wagah border.
The meeting is taking place nearly six months after the government decided to suspend talks on the pact in the wake of the Uri terror attack by Pakistan-based outfits, is yet to be finalised.
Pakistan had raised objections over designs of 240 MW Uri-II and 44 MW Chutak projects, built in Baramulla and Kargil districts of Jammu and Kashmir respectively, saying these will deprive it of its water share under the pact.
Similarly, Pakistan has been flagging concern over designs of India's five other hydroelectricity projects - Pakal Dul (1000 MW), Ratle (850 MW), Kishanganga (330 MW), Miyar (120 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW) - being built or planned in the Indus river basin, contending these violate the treaty.
It had approached the World Bank - the mediator between the two countries of the 57-year-old water distribution treaty - in August last year raising issues over Kishanganga and Ratle projects in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan is set to raise issues related to three dams — 1000 MW Pakuldul on Chenab, 120 MW Miyar, located across Miyar Nalla which is a right bank main tributary of River Chenab and the 43 MW Lower Kalnai hydro project— on Lower Kalnai Nalla, a tributary of river Chenab.
(With PTI inputs)
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