ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: After waffling and wavering for several years Pakistan on Tuesday formally requested the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert to settle its lingering Baglihar dam dispute with India after negotiations through all bilateral channels failed to resolve it.

"After having failed to resolve the differences at the level of the Permanent Indus Water Commission and bilaterally over the Baglihar hydroelectric dam, being constructed by India on the river Chenab, in violation of the Indus Water Treaty, Pakistan has decided to invoke the provisions of the treaty and approach the World Bank for the appointment of a neutral expert," announced Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan at a special news briefing at the foreign ministry here in the afternoon.

"Formal request to the president of the World Bank has been made by Pakistan. The World Bank president has been requested to appoint a neutral expert as provided for in the treaty," the spokesman said.

The WB brokered the 1960 bilateral water-sharing treaty and also stood as its guarantor. "The situation arising from India's violation of the Indus Treaty, can now be addressed in accordance with the provision of the said treaty," Mr Khan declared.

The treaty gives both the countries the third party option in case of a deadlock over any issue. Article IX of the treaty provides for settling disputes through neutral expert or arbitration if they cannot be resolved between the two Indus water commissioners.

The formal announcement by the government to move the Bank comes after hectic consultations and exactly a week after Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz instructed all relevant ministries to make preparations for it on priority basis at a high-level meeting here. In the last seven days the prime minister presided over four Baglihar-specific meetings.

The two-page letter addressed to the World Bank President James Wolfensen was signed by Acting Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Water Shiraz Memon. The letter was faxed earlier in the day to Pakistan's ambassador in Washington Jehangir Karamat, who subsequently handed it over to the Bank's president, it is learnt.

Officials said there was no formal communication to the Indian government from Pakistan on Tuesday, through diplomatic or political channels, about the dispatch of its formal notification to the World Bank.

They maintained that Pakistan was under no obligation to inform India about the move, adding that the Pakistani side had already conveyed to the Indians after the breakdown of the last round of talks in Delhi early this month that it was left with no option but to seek the World Bank intercession.

The decision to send a formal notification to the World Bank was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Shaukat Aziz here on Tuesday morning. The hour-long meeting was attended by ministers of foreign affairs, water and power, law, economic affairs division and their respective secretaries. The attorney general and foreign ministry's director-general South Asia Jalil Abbas Jilani were also present.

At the heart of the dispute is the design of India's Baglihar hydroelectric project, which, according to Pakistan's case against it, provides for submerged gated spillways, and therefore Indian control over Pakistani waters in breach of the Indus Water Treaty.

Pakistan's main concern is that the gated structure would provide India the capability to manipulate flow of water to Pakistan's disadvantage. Mr Khan was grilled at the briefing for the 'belated' move by the government and faced a volley of questions on why the government did not approach the Bank earlier.

Defending the government the spokesman said it wanted to exhaust all bilateral channels and engaged India in good faith. He insisted there had been no procrastination or mis judgment on the part of the government on this issue.

He disputed Indian claim that the Baglihar dam served the interests of Kashmiris and said that this contention was an attempt by India to justify the violations of the treaty.

"It is an untenable argument. The fact is that India has violated the treaty, a wrong has been committed and it needs to be rectified. India cannot violate a treaty with impunity," was his emphatic assertion. He maintained people of Kashmir had too reacted negatively to the construction of the dam.