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PAKISTAN NOT TO INITIATE BUT WILL RESPOND ‘VERY STRONGLY’ TO ANY INDIAN ESCALATION: DAR Thursday, 1 May, 2025 | 3 Ziquad, 1446
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DPM REITERATES DEMAND FOR INDEPENDENT, NEUTRAL PROBE INTO THE INCIDENT UNDER CREDIBLE AND MUTUALLY AGREED TORS
SAYS ANY ATTEMPT TO STOP OR DIVERT FLOW OF WATER BELONGING TO PAKISTAN UNDER IWT WOULD BE CONSIDERED AN ‘ACT OF WAR’
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ISLAMABAD
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DG ISPR SAYS PAKISTANI NATION AND ARMED FORCES DETERMINED TO DEFEND COUNTRY’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AND SOVEREIGNTY AT ALL COSTS
WE HAVE CREDIBLE INTELLIGENCE INDICATING INDIA TASKED ALL ITS PROXIES TO CARRY OUT TERRORIST ACTS EVERYWHERE IN PAKISTAN: DG ISPR
ISLAMABAD
Staff RepoRt
“Pakistan has neither any connection … nor is the potential beneficiary. At a time when the economy is stabilising and we are making significant progress against terrorism, we need to question why this situation is being created by India all of a sudden and what is the motivation behind it,” Dar posed a question. He said holding in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty by India was unilateral and illegal as the Treaty contained no such provisions and any amendment or termination required consensus. In case of disagreements or issues, there are forums provided in the treaty which should be invoked,” he added. “Pakistan is an agrarian economy, millions of people are dependent on the waters being regulated by this treaty. We gave up three rivers in this treaty and I can hardly
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LT-GEN CHAUDHRY EMPHASIZES PAKISTAN WAS PRESENTING EVIDENCE RATHER THAN ENGAGING IN BASELESS ALLEGATIONS
PM Shehbaz urges Rubio to impress upon India to ‘act responsibly’
Saleem Jadoon
N the midst of heightened tension between Pakistan and India, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammed Ishaq Dar on Wednesday reiterating its commitment not to initiate, warned India of a strong response if it made any escalatory move as its armed forces were on alert to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “The world leaders have been requesting the exercise of restraint in recent days. I have made it very clear, on behalf of the government and the nation, that Pakistan will not be the first one to resort to any escalatory move. However, in case of any escalatory move by the Indian side, we will respond very strongly,” DPM Senator Ishaq Dar stated. FM Dar was addressing a news conference alongside Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry and Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan in Islamabad on Wednesday. Brushing aside the Indian allegations against Pakistan following the Pahalgam incident without an “iota of evidence and with such dramatic speed,” he said Pakistan had nothing to do with it. “We demand an independent and transparent probe by neutral investigators, as announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Any TORs in this regard should be credible and mutually agreed upon.
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find a water distribution treaty in the world whereby, a part of dealing with the distribution of water, the rivers could have also been given up.” Dar said the National Security Committee had made it “very clear” that any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan, as per the IWT and the usurpation of the rights of the lower riparian, would be considered an “act of war”. The deputy prime minister said the entire region was facing a serious threat to its peace and stability as a politically motivated and highly provocative environment was being created by India in the wake of the Pahalgam attack in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
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“Terming India’s escalatory and provocative behavior as deeply disappointing and worrisome,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday urged United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio to impress upon India to “dial down the rhetoric and act responsibly,” amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear arch-rivals in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. A statement issued from the Prime Minister’s Office later Wednesday, said the premier received a telephone call from Rubio in the evening in which Shehbaz “urged the US to impress upon India to dial down the rhetoric and act responsibly”. The prime minister said that India’s provocations would only serve to distract Pakistan from its ongoing efforts to defeat terrorism, particularly from militant groups, including ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province), TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) and BLA (Balochistan Liberation Army) operating from Afghan soil,” it added.
PM Shehbaz categorically rejected India’s attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam incident, highlighting his call for a transparent, credible and neutral investigation to bring out the facts, according to the statement, It said the prime minister shared Pakistan’s perspective on recent developments in South Asia since the Pahalgam incident with Secretary Rubio. “While condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the PM underscored Pakistan’s leading role in the war on terror and its sacrifice of over 90,000 lives and over $152 billion in economic losses,” the statement read. “It is most regrettable that India chose to weaponise water, which is a lifeline for 240 million people of Pakistan,” the premier was quoted as saying, while also stressing that the Indus Waters Treaty had no provision for either side to unilaterally renege from its commitments. The prime minister added that the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute was the “only way to ensure lasting peace in South Asia”.
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