Q1: Indus Water Treaty (1960)

Outline

• Introduction
• Background & Need
• Key Provisions
• Impact on Distribution
• Impact on Relations
• Criticisms
• Recent Challenges
• Way Forward
• Conclusion

Introduction: Signed 19 Sept 1960 (World Bank guarantor); a rare durable water-sharing pact despite wars.

Background: 1948 cutoff at Madhopur/Ferozepur triggered crisis; WB mediation (1951) led to treaty.

Key Provisions

• Eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) → India
• Western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) → Pakistan (India: non-consumptive use within design limits)
• World Bank funding for Pakistani replacement works (Mangla, Tarbela, link canals)

Impact on Water Distribution

Pakistan accesses ~75% of basin flows via western rivers; India full control of eastern rivers.

Impact on Relations

• Initial cooperation via Permanent Indus Commission
• Design disputes: Baglihar & Kishanganga
• Strategic signaling around water (e.g., 2016 rhetoric)

Conclusion

Treaty endures but faces climate, legal, and political stress; modernization + cooperative basin management needed.

Q2: Separation of East Pakistan (1971)

Causes: Disenfranchisement (One Unit, 1970 majority ignored); economic disparities; cultural-linguistic marginalization; Operation Searchlight.

Background: Two wings 1600 km apart; divergent identities + governance failures.

External Roles & Consequences

• India: Refugees, Mukti Bahini support, Dec-71 intervention → Dhaka fall
• US/USSR/China: Cold-War alignments; USSR backed India; US tilted to Pakistan
• Outcomes: Bangladesh; 93k POWs; 1973 Constitution; federal rethink

Q3: CPEC — Opportunities & Risks

Significance: $62B BRI flagship (roads, energy, SEZs, Gwadar).

Opportunities: Regional trade hub, jobs, urban modernization, tech transfer.

Challenges: Debt sustainability, security (esp. Balochistan), provincial equity, transparency & environment.

Q4: Demographic & Cultural Diversity

Strengths: Cultural richness & soft power; plural representation in policymaking.

Challenges: Ethnic nationalism, sectarianism, language politics, uneven development.

Policy: Devolution (18th Amendment), quotas, multilingual education, equitable NFC.

Q5: Bhutto’s Nationalization

Goals: Equity, anti-monopoly, worker empowerment.

Effects: Jobs/wages ↑; but investor flight, PSE inefficiencies; slower growth; later reversals & privatization.

Lesson: Combine smart regulation with competitive private sector & meritocracy.

Q6: Pakistan’s Kashmir Policy

Phases: 1947–49 UN path; 1965 conflict; 1989 insurgency; 2000s CBMs; post-2019 Article 370 response.

Way Forward: Lawfare + diplomacy, rights narrative, backchannels, diaspora, AJK/GB governance models.

Q7: Media — Curse or Blessing?

Blessing: Awareness, accountability, mobilization. Curse: Disinfo, sensationalism, capture.

Social Media: Hashtags drive narratives; requires literacy & ethics.