Introduction
On June 27, 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague delivered a supplemental award that reaffirmed its jurisdiction over Pakistan’s 2016 case against India concerning the Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects. The tribunal ruled that India’s unilateral decision, announced in April 2025, to place the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in ‘abeyance’ has no legal effect on the Treaty itself or on the Court’s competence.[1] The judgment restores procedural certainty to a water‑sharing framework that sustains Pakistan’s irrigated agriculture and underpins decades of conflict management between two nuclear‑armed neighbours.
