Pakistan is likely to dispatch a 10-member team headed by the Secretary Water and Power Ashfaq Mehmood to New Delhi on January 3 as a last diplomatic effort to resolve controversy over 450-megawatt Baglihar hydropower project, reliable sources told Business Recorder. The team is expected to convey to the India side that Pakistan is approaching the World Bank for the appointment of an expert under the Indus Basin Treaty of 1960, as the Bank was the guarantor of the treaty that was signed to resolve bilateral water disputes.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has been briefed on the dispute a few days earlier by the concerned agencies at the PM secretariat, wherein different options were discussed for an amicable solution of the controversial project being constructed across Jehlum River.

The sources said India has provided data regarding the construction of Baglihar project, but did not allow Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Water for physical verification of site.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005