Pakistan ready to approach WB if Baglihar talks in Jan fail

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is prepared to ask the World Bank for arbitration if a solution to the dispute over the Baglihar dam is not reached in talks with India in January, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. “We are ready to approach the World Bank if the talks with India on this issue fail,” the sources said, adding that Pakistan could not afford to delay this issue as it faced a severe water shortage. They said it was a serious issue that was discussed in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and attended by Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, the attorney general of Pakistan, the minister of Water and Power and senior officials of his ministry. The meeting decided that a Pakistani team headed by the Water and Power secretary would visit India in the first week of January for final negotiations on the Baghliar dam issue. The Water and Power minister briefed the meeting on the status of negotiations with India and the meeting reviewed all options to resolve the dispute. staff report

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