Pakistan has told the World Bank that its case against the Baglihar hydropower project were more about technical violations of the Indus Waters Treaty by India.
In its response to queries from the World Bank, which is currently studying Pakistan's reference to it seeking the appointment of a neutral expert to decide whether the project complied with the provisions of the 1960 treaty, Islamabad said the height of the project was in violation of the treaty.
Pakistan says that the height of the project would interfere with the flow of water to Pakistan. It also contends that the dam's bondage capacity, 37.722 million cubic metres of water, is twice the allowed amount under the treaty.
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Pakistan had also pointed out that under the treaty, the waters of the eastern rivers of the Indus basin had been allocated to India and those of the western rivers, to Pakistan.
The average annual flow of waters in the eastern rivers is estimated to be around 33 million acre feet whereas it is 135 MAF in the western rivers.
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While asserting that the design of the project was well within the prescribed perimeters of the treaty, India said Islamabad's fears were due to political objections and not technical.
Indian officials have been saying that the treaty do not address the political concerns and perceived fears but only outlined broad technical perimeters for the two countries to follow.
The treaty, while granting the rights of the river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir on which the project was being built, has accorded the right to India to build run of the river projects to generate electricity.
Pakistan in its rejoinder has said that that the project was a violation of paragraph 8 (F) of annexure D to the treaty.
Pakistan contends that the dam would lead to a reduction in the downstream flow of water in the Indus as River Chenab is one of the important water sources for Indus.
Pakistan, which describes the project as a "dam", says it will increase India's storage capacity to 164,000 acre feet, which is much higher than that allowed under the treaty and would allow India to control the flow of water to Pakistan's disadvantage.
Pakistan has filed the reference before the World Bank in January seeking its arbitration.
