- By Priyanka Koul
- Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:19 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
- Pakistan minister fears India weaponizing water supply.
- Indus Waters Treaty suspended after Pahalgam attack.
- PM Sharif warned of "direct response" to water threats.
More than a year after India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) on April 23, 2025, Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has made fresh remarks, saying India’s decision to keep the treaty in abeyance has created a new challenge for Islamabad.
He claimed that Pakistan now faces the possibility of India using water as a weapon by withholding supplies when they are needed for crops and releasing them when they are not.
“It's untouchable because it is an international agreement and this time around the Indian government has unilaterally held it in abeyance and that sort of creates a new challenge that first time probably water has been weaponized in modern history and we now face this threat that you know they can use water as a weapon to deny Pakistan water when it needs for its crops and release it when we don't need it,” he said during an event at Asia Society.
NEW: "Pakistan now faces the threat that India could use water as a weapon to deny us water when we need it.." acknowledges Pakistan minister Ahsan Iqbal on India placing Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance pic.twitter.com/yBaOG7LmNu
— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) August 22, 2026
“So these dams that we are constructing would also be our buffer, but I think at the same time we cannot let this go unnoticed. We are using all the diplomacy," he added.
The fresh remarks come amid stalled tensions between India and Pakistan over the Indus Waters Treaty, with Islamabad repeatedly raising concerns over the impact of India’s decision to suspend the pact.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also made remarks over IWT on the eve of the country’s Independence Day. He warned India against threatening Pakistan’s water supplies and said Islamabad would give a “direct response” if its access to water were jeopardised.
Sharif said Pakistan wanted peace and not war but cautioned that its desire for peace should not be mistaken for weakness.
“Every drop of water is our red line,” Sharif said, as quoted in a report by the Associated Press. He warned that Pakistan would respond if India threatened its water supplies, adding that any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty would draw a strong response.
Sharif’s remarks came against the backdrop of the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025, which followed the Pahalgam terror attack and further strained ties between the two countries.
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India decided to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed.