Afghanistan, June 6 -- Pakistan's water emergency is real. But the cause is not as simple as the one Islamabad keeps repeating.
Since India placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance in April 2025 after the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Pakistan's civilian and military leadership has presented the move as an assault on the country's national lifeline. The concern is not imaginary. The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, has for more than six decades governed the sharing of the Indus river system between India and Pakistan. Under the treaty, the western rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, were allocated largely for Pakistan's use, while the eastern rivers, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, were allocated to India.
For Pakistan, th...