The two-day talks between Pakistan and India over the
construction of a controversial barrage have been postponed, the
state-run PTV reported on Monday.
"New dates for the talks would be announced later," the
television quoted foreign office sources as saying. The talks were
originally scheduled to start on Tuesday in Islamabad.
No reason was given for the postponement of talks on Wullar
Barrage navigation project.
However, private Geo TV quoted Foreign Office spokesperson
Tasneem Aslam as saying that the talks were postponed because India
Secretary for Water Resources J. Hari Narayan could not travel to
Islamabad due to his personal reasons.
India started building the barrage in 1984 on a tributary of
Indus river Jhelum river, which runs through the disputed Jammu and
Kashmir.
India wants to build the barrage across the mouth of the Wullar
lake downstream from the Jhelum to make the river navigable during
the dry season.
But Pakistan says that it would be used to store water instead
and would deprive its farms of irrigation water, violating the 1960
Indus Water Treaty.
(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2006)
