Pakistan, Aug. 30 -- The bottom line to emerge from Pakistan's Embassy in Washington DC this weekend was not that the Indus Waters Treaty is in trouble. That has been evident ever since India placed it "in abeyance" in April 2025. It was an attempt to spell out loud what that trouble means.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar deliberately carried the argument beyond India and Pakistan. The treaty, he said, was an instrument of stability and now a test of the sanctity of international agreements. Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh put the problem more sharply in his closing remarks: "There is no crisis of content in Indus Waters Treaty . there is a crisis of intent in implementation." Dar called for the restoration of technical engagement, transp...