ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Minister for Water and Power Resources Liaquat Ali Jatoi said on Monday that the World Bank-appointed neutral expert's verdict in the Baglihar dam dispute was "morally binding" on India.

"I would urge India that they must respect this verdict because it is in accordance with the treaty. They have participated in the hearings. If they had boycotted, then it is another matter; but they participated and pleaded their case well and if they don't accept it, it will be against justice," Mr. Jatoi said.

Four features

Listing four features of the design that Pakistan had taken to the Swiss neutral expert, Raymond Lafitte, Mr. Jatoi said three had been decided in its favour.

India would have to reduce the freeboard — the height of the dam above the maximum storage line — from 4.5 metres to 3 m; raise the location of the power intake turbines that determine control over the run-off by 3 m; and reduce the pondage from 37.22 mcm (million cubic metres) to 32.5 mcm.

On the issue of the location of the gates spillways, Mr. Jatoi said, "Keeping in view the new standards for the dam, the neutral expert has allowed the spillways at the same level of 808 m. We have our reservations about this, and we reserve the right to pursue the matter in accordance with the provisions of the treaty."

A Ministry official later explained that the expert's verdict could not go against the treaty, and Pakistan was examining whether it violated the treaty on the issue of the spillways.

Pakistan's acceptance of the verdict on the whole as a "victory" for itself means that it has also set aside its own original demands on the project design.

The most significant of these demands was slashing the pondage to 6 mcm. The reduction in the height of the freeboard by 1.5 m that Mr. Lafitte has recommended was a concession India offered before the matter went to him.

Mr. Jatoi said that as a result of the verdict, "the civil works at the dam have to be demolished," and this was "another success" for Pakistan.

"If India had not from the beginning done this zid and kept to the provisions of the treaty from the beginning, the people of Kashmir would have got power by now," he said.

As a result of Pakistan's decision to take the matter to a third party, the Indian Government had halted work at Kishanganga and had been forced to reconsider the design of the project. "This too is a success for Pakistan," he said.

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