Senate rues govt laxity on water disputes with India
27 February, 2013
ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Tuesday expressed serious reservations over the government's handling of water disputes with India, urging it to take appropriate measures, as it is a matter of life and death for the country. It was noted that the Indian government has nominated water experts while Pakistan's nominees were people who had no expertise in the water sector. Opposition leader Senator Ishaq Dar said the government always took the water issue with a non-serious attitude, which resulted in losing the case in ICA's initial report. But Minister of State for Water and Power Tasneem Qureshi claimed that Pakistan cannot lose the case and the initial decision of the ICA was in favour of the country. He said the Indian media wrongly presented the case and real situation was totally different. The senators also discussed the issue of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddique, who is serving a jail sentence in the US. Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the House that he would raise this issue with US President Obama. He said Pakistan is going for a mercy petition in the US and also trying to bring her back to the country where she will serve the remaining sentence. End.
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