NEW DELHI: Pakistan has moved the Court of Arbitration asking it to
direct India to stop work at the 330-MW Kishenganga hydro power project
in Jammu and Kashmir.
Even as the two countries are fighting a
legal battle in a court of arbitration, Pakistan has filed a petition
in the court seeking a direction to make India hold the project till
the case is settled by the court, sources in the government told PTI.
The
project is likely to be completed by 2015. "It is a normal procedure
adopted during such cases," a senior official said.A seven-judge Bench
has started the arbitration proceedings from January 14 this year in
the Hague.Incidentally, this is the first case referred to
international arbitration under the provisions of the Indus Water
Treaty, 1960.Earlier, India and Pakistan had sought the services of a
neutral expert appointed by the World Bank to resolve their differences
over the 450 MW Baglihar dam under construction on the Chenab river.
The
Bench -- comprising Justice Stephen M Schwebel (head), Justice Sir
Franklin Beman, Prof Howard S Wheater, Justice Bruno Simma, Jan
Paulsson, Justice Peter Tomka and Lucius Caflisch -- has three neutral
umpires, including the head of the Bench, and four arbitrators
nominated by India and Pakistan.Noted lawyer and expert on
international law Shankar Das and legal luminary Fali S Nariman, both
of whom had argued India’s case in the Baglihar dam issue, are
representing India, supported by a clutch of foreign counsel. Online
