Writing about the Sir Creek issue some months ago, Pakistani analyst SM Hali noted that the Indus is shifting and Indian and Pakistani hydrographers are aware that the latest position favours Pakistan (The Dawn, June 27, 2012). More pertinently, once maritime and international boundaries are fixed, they cannot be repositioned on the basis of shifting ground positions of water bodies.
This may explain the sudden haste of some Track II veterans to ‘hand over’ Sir Creek to our brothers across the border. The UPA is deeply committed to a peace deal with Pakistan despite the failure to bring the culprits behind the November 2008 attack on Mumbai to justice. As recently as September 1, 2012, Dr. Manmohan Singh said a deal on Sir Creek is “doable”.
The Indus began changing course after the Pakistan floods of 2010. The last time it changed course was after the earthquake of June 1819, which pushed it from Kutch’s Lakhpat port (Basta Bundar) to around 125 km southeast of Karachi. Satellite images show the Indus is moving back towards Kutch, via new courses south of Kalri lake, Thatta district, Pakistan. Remote sensing expert PS Thakker says one course has reached 60 km northwest of Lakhpat to Sir Creek; one is 56 km north of Lakhpat, near Jati in Pakistan. The waters could reach east of Lakhpat in the Great Rann, near Zara at 24º 14′ 09″ N and 69º 12′ 07″ E.
Sir Creek is a 60-mile long fluctuating estuary in the marshes of the Rann, on the border between Gujarat (India) and Sindh (Pakistan). A dispute arose around 1908, between the then principalities of Kutch and Sindh, which the government of Bombay resolved in 1914, supported by Map B44 and later B74. Matters were dormant until the 1965 war broke out in the Rann of Kutch. Its strategic importance can be gauged from the fact that in August 1999, months after the Kargil war, the Air Force shot down a Pakistani Navy Breguet Atlantique surveillance aircraft that strayed into Indian airspace there, killing all 16 on board.
After 1965, Pakistan claimed half of the Rann along the 24th parallel as its territory. India said the boundary ran roughly along the northern edge of the Rann. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson intervened and the matter was referred to an international tribunal for arbitration; its Award on February 19, 1968, upheld 90 per cent of India’s claim to the entire Rann, conceding small sectors to Pakistan.
The dispute began after the parties agreed before the Tribunal to limit their dispute to the northern boundary. There was agreement over the boundary to the south that began at the head of Sir Creek and ran a short distance eastward roughly along the 24th parallel. India asserted that this line moved up sharply at a right angle at its western end to meet the northern boundary of the Rann. Pakistan wanted to extend the line further eastward and claim half of the Rann along the 24th parallel. The Tribunal upheld India’s view that the short agreed boundary turned north and that almost the entire Rann was Indian.
Six rounds of talks on the issue have failed. In 1994, India issued a ‘non-paper’ mooting delineation of the maritime boundary in the territorial sea on the ‘median’/‘equidistant’ principle using the low water lines and low tide elevations of both countries, and beyond the territorial sea according to ‘equidistant’ and ‘equitable’ principles. In 1996, Pakistan said straight baselines should be drawn along its coast, consisting of a series of nine straight lines. India, which has not declared straight baselines, said these are not in accordance with Article 7(2) of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Further, Point K in Pakistan’s straight baselines system lies off the eastern bank of Sir Creek.
However, India and Pakistan agree on the horizontal sector of the land boundary. This encompasses the international boundary between India and Pakistan on the land, in the Rann of Kutch area, demarcated on the basis of the 1968 Tribunal Award.
In September 1998, working groups were set up for six issues, including Sir Creek. India asserted that the Sir Creek area allocation and delimitation were done via paras 9 and 10 of the 1914 Resolution of the Government of Bombay and illustrated on map (B44). Demarcation and administration was complete in 1925 and thereafter the boundary in Sir Creek has been depicted in the mid-channel by a proper boundary symbol. This is the Thalweg principle in international maritime law, whereby river boundaries between two states may be divided by the mid-channel if the water-body is navigable. Islamabad says Sir Creek is non-navigable; India insists it is navigable year-round.
Pakistan wanted the Green Line (denoting the eastern edge of the Creek) appended to the 1914 Resolution transposed on to the ground. India said the Green Line was only symbolic, the boundary being mid-channel.
India then proposed that pending formalisation of the boundary in the Sir Creek, the two sides could consider delimitation of the maritime boundary from the seaward side, by commencing at Exclusive Economic Zones limit and proceeding landwards up to a mutually acceptable limit according to the provisions of the Technical Aspects of Law of Sea (TALOS). The seaward approach is based on universally accepted practices and benefits both countries in exploiting the resources of their respective EEZ. The EEZ grants rights over sea resources up to 200 nautical miles in the water column and up to 300 nautical miles in the land beneath the column. The EEZ congruent to Sir Creek is rich in marine life, and may yield oil and gas; hence the renewed contest for control of the estuary.
Islamabad insists it would consider a maritime boundary only after determination of the land boundary in Sir Creek area and the issues must be settled simultaneously. India avers this is contrary to internationally accepted cartographic procedures and historical developments that have taken place over the years. If India accepts the Green Line showing Sir Creek’s eastern bank as the land boundary and then subsequently equidistant line as the basis for delimitation of the maritime boundary, Pakistan’s EEZ will be enlarged by around 250 sq. miles.
NitiCentral, December 18, 2012
http://www.niticentral.com/2012/12/we-need-to-tread-cautiously-in-sir-creek.html