April 25, 2025
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and India’s relations on most fronts, from diplomatic ties to cultural projects, have yo-yoed from on and off to on (then off) again since Partition. Bilateral agreements have been no exception.
Following a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, New Delhi, while pointing the finger at Pakistan sans proof, suspended the India-Pakistan Indus Water Treaty with immediate effect along with other measures.
In retaliation, in its top security body meeting today, Pakistan decided that it would exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India, including but not limited to the Simla Agreement, in abeyance. It also announced the closure of the Wagah border and suspension of all trade with New Delhi, among other measures.
The full text of the statement can be read here.
Here, Dawn.com overviews the major treaties and agreements reached between India and Pakistan since 1947 and their status.
The Nehru-Liaquat Agreement
The agreement was reached between then-Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s Liaquat Ali Khan during a meeting in New Delhi in April 1950. It declared that the neighbours and their governments would protect the interests of minorities in their respective countries.
Both governments would also be accountable to each other on the issue of the protection of minority rights, the agreement stated. The pact’s provisions also included freedom of movement, non-discrimination in employment and the formation of a minorities commission to oversee its implementation.
The pact was signed in the aftermath of the Partition when communal violence was widespread in both countries.
Indus Water Treaty
Signed on September 19, 1960, the treaty was brokered by the World Bank. It fixed and delimited the rights and obligations of the neighbouring countries regarding the use of the waters of the Indus River. It was signed by Nehru and former president Ayub Khan after six years of talks.
The treaty gave the water of the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — to Pakistan and those of the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India. It also provided for the funding and construction of dams, link canals, barrages and tube wells, i.e. the Tarbela and Mangla dams. The treaty further required the creation of a Permanent Indus Commission, led by a commissioner from each country.
Numerous disputes were peacefully settled over the years through the Permanent Indus Commission. The treaty was in effect for nearly 65 years before it was suspended last night.
As highlighted by analysts, this could have far-reaching implications for Pakistan.
Simla Agreement
The agreement was signed between Pakistan and India in the aftermath of the 1970 war; the signatories being Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi. The agreement, inter alia, stipulated that neither party would take any action unilaterally, that the disputes between the two countries would be resolved bilaterally, and that the ceasefire line would become the Line of Control (LoC).
In connection with Kashmir, it stated that “the basic issues and causes of conflict which have bedevilled the relations between the two countries for the last 25 years shall be resolved by peaceful means”. It also bound both countries to discuss the modalities and arrangements for lasting peace and normalisation.
However, Pakistan argues that India violated the Simla Accord in 2019 when it unilaterally revoked Article 370, altering the status of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This further enabled outsiders to obtain domicile and purchase property in Kashmir to change the Muslim-majority demography of the valley, again termed as a violation of the agreement.
“The Modi government has now gone a step further. It rejects the very idea of talks. If driven to the table, it will not discuss the part of Kashmir on its side of the line of control. This explains the cancellation of the foreign secretaries’ talks in 2014 on petty grounds. By wrecking Kashmir and thumbing its nose at the UN, it seeks to declare ‘closure’ of the dispute,” wrote Indian lawyer A.G. Noorani in a Dawn op-ed in 2019.
Protocol on visits to religious shrines
The protocol, a bilateral agreement, was signed in 1974. It is aimed at facilitating the visits of religious pilgrims from India and Pakistan to the shrines located in the respective countries. As of 2018, the agreement covers 15 such locations in Pakistan and five in India.
Shadani Darbar in Sindh’s Hyat Pitafi, Katasraj Dham in Chakwal, Gurudwaras of Nankana Sahib, and Gurudwara Panja Sahib are among the sites on this side of the fence. In India, Ajmer Sharif Dargah, Nizamuddin Dargah, and the tomb of Amir Khusro are the most-visited shrines.
Under the protocol, up to 3,000 Sikh pilgrims are permitted to visit Pakistan for any religious festival. However, the government issued a total of 6,751 visas this year, a record number. Earlier this year, India issued visas to only 100 Pakistani pilgrims for the annual Urs of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer Sharif, significantly below the allotted quota of 500.
Agreement on prohibition of attacks on nuclear installations and facilities
The agreement was signed between Pakistan and India on December 31, 1988. It, inter alia, provided that both countries should inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities within their definitions, on January 1 of each calendar year.
The treaty also stated that both countries should refrain from undertaking, encouraging or participating in, directly or indirectly, an action aimed at causing the destruction of or damage to any nuclear installation or facility in the other country.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the agreements went into effect on January 27, 1991, and the neighbours have been exchanging lists every year since 1992. As stipulated in the agreement, this year too India and Pakistan exchanged lists of nuclear facilities as well as civilian prisoners, including fishermen, on Jan 1 this year.
Agreement on prevention of airspace violations
The agreement was signed between Pakistan and India on April 6, 1991, in New Delhi. It aimed to reduce the risk of accidental or unintentional airspace violations between the neighbouring countries and established rules for military aircraft to avoid flying within 10 kilometres of each other’s airspace, including the Air Defence Identification Zone — a defined area of airspace where a country requires aircraft to identify themselves for national security purposes.
It also stated that no aircraft from either country was allowed to enter the other’s airspace over territorial waters without prior permission.
This agreement has been largely respected notwithstanding occasional violations. In response to India’s aggressive measures following the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan today announced that it was closing its airspace with immediate effect for all Indian owned or Indian operated airlines.
The Lahore Declaration
The declaration was signed by former Indian prime minister Vajpayee and his counterpart Nawaz Sharif during the former’s visit to Pakistan in February 1999.
In the agreement, India and Pakistan recognised that “an environment of peace and security is in the supreme national interest of both sides and that the resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, is essential for this purpose”. They also agreed to “intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir” through an accelerated process of their “composite and integrated dialogue”.
The two sides anticipated the complexity of the new responsibility that they were carrying after becoming “declared nuclear-weapon states” and decided to “engage in regular bilateral consultations on their respective security concepts and nuclear doctrines with a view to developing measures for confidence building in the nuclear and conventional fields aimed at avoidance of conflict”.
They also agreed to provide each other with advance information in respect of ballistic missile flight tests and undertook to conclude an agreement in this regard.
The process was disrupted by the Kargil crisis and resumed in 2004 when the two countries formed expert groups to discuss conventional and nuclear confidence-building measures. However, as highlighted by former foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry in an op-ed for Dawn, neither Pakistan nor India created a mechanism to review the implementation of the agreement.
Agreement on pre-notification of flight testing of ballistic missiles
The pact was signed between India and Pakistan in 2005. It stated that both countries should provide the other an advance notification — not less than a time period of three days — of the flight test that they intended to undertake, of any land or sea-launched, surface-to-surface ballistic missile.
“Each party shall ensure that the test launch site(s) do not fall within 40kms, and the planned impact area does not fall within 75kms, of the International Boundary or the Line of Control on the side of the party planning to flight test the ballistic missile,” it stated.
The agreement remains operational. However, last year, Pakistan accused India of not fully complying with the accord when India conducted its first successful test flight of a domestically developed missile capable of carrying multiple warheads.
Agreement on reducing risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons
The agreement on nuclear accidents came into effect on February 21, 2007, for an initial period of five years.
Under the pact, both countries committed to improving the security and safety of their nuclear arsenal; informing each other of any nuclear accident, and taking steps to minimise the radiological consequences of such an accident. Furthermore, each of the two countries, in the event of a nuclear accident, is bound to take steps to prevent its actions from being misinterpreted by the other.
In 2012 and 2017, the agreement was extended by five years each.
LOC ceasefire agreement
In November 2003, Pakistan and India agreed to ceasefire along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. The LOC is a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir Valley between the two countries, and the Working Boundary, which separates the two neighbours.
The agreement held for a few years, but regular violations were reported since 2008. A sharp spike in the truce breaches were, meanwhile, witnessed after 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in India.
In 2021, both countries recommitted themselves to the agreement. According to a statement issued by Pakistan, the two sides had concurred on reviving the existing mechanisms — hotline contact and flag meetings — for dealing with “any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding”.