ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Wednesday welcomed the appointment of a neutral expert by the World Bank to settle a dispute over India's building of a dam in its zone of divided Kashmir, the foreign ministry said.
The World Bank had appointed Professor Raymond Lafitte, a Swiss national, civil engineer and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, foreign ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told AFP.
Pakistan asked the World Bank to name a neutral expert to settle the row over the Baghliar dam after talks with India collapsed in January. The bank had brokered the 1960 Indus Water Treaty on which Islamabad's objections are based.
"We welcome the appointment of the neutral expert. Pakistan hopes that after the appointment of the neutral expert, the issue would be resolved strictly according to the provisions of Indus Water Treaty," he said.
Islamabad says it fears the dam on the Chenab river flowing from Indian Kashmir to Pakistan could deprive its wheat-bowl state of Punjab of vital irrigation water and charges it violates the 44-year-old water agreement.
Pakistan is concerned that in the event of another war, India could use the dam to cause flooding or droughts in Punjab, analysts say. India denies all the claims and is continuing work on the hydroelectric project.
Earlier this year the argument threatened to sour the peace process between the South Asian nuclear rivals which was launched in January 2004. Their competing claims over Kashmir have sparked two of their three wars.
"Both India and Pakistan have found Professor Lafitte suitably qualified as a neutral expert. His findings will be made known in time," a World Bank press release said.
Under the terms of the 1960 treaty Lafitte's decision will be final and binding, it added.
The treaty divided the river systems between the two countries and has survived the 1965 and 1971 wars between the the two South Asian neighbours.
Pakistan has also raised objections on another water project in Indian Kashmir. The three days of talks on the controversial Kishanganga Dam in Indian Kashmir concluded in Lahore Tuesday without resolution, officials said.
05/11/2005 13:53 GMT