Pakistan, July 1 -- The most consequential sentence at Islamabad seminar on the Indus Waters Treaty came from Pakistan's Indus Waters commissioner, who said he had written four times to his Indian counterpart over significant fluctuations in the Chenab since New Delhi placed the treaty in "abeyance." No answer has come.

Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah described the Chenab fluctuations as a "strategic hazard" and warned that "data-sharing is the line between natural risk and manufactured vulnerability."

The Indus Waters Treaty has survived wars, military crises and broken dialogue because it was designed to remove water from the furnace of India-Pakistan hostility. It rests on allocation, data, inspection, the Permanent Indus Commission and...