Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari lost his cool while replying to a tweet posted by former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry, telling the latter that the Sindhu River is the Indus River and all Pakistanis belong to the Indus Valley civilisation.

 

Both politicians exchanged tense words on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday afternoon when the PPP head commented on a press release issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which reads that it was not open to India to unilaterally suspend the Indus Water Treaty or hold it in abeyance.

 

Following the April 22 Pahalgam incident in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), India suspended the long-standing Indus Water Treaty (IWT). An illegitimate action, which Pakistan declared, will be considered an “act of war”. 

 

Sharing the press release on X, Bilawal wrote, “Sindhu pay hamla na manzoor (attack on the Indus, unacceptable). India’s unilateral decision regarding the Indus Water treaty have no bearing in international law (sic).”

 

Chaudhry was quick to pounce upon the tweet, replying, “This [is] an attack on Pakistan, not on Sindh, unless you have also joined Sindhu Daish under the GM (Ghulam Murtaza) Syed family,” adding, “BB (Benazir Bhutto) would never have made such statement."

 

GM Syed was a veteran Sindhi nationalist leader and author of almost sixty books on various topics, such as history, Sufism, politics, and philosophy. He was born on 17 January 1904, in the small village of Sann, Sindh. He died in 1995. 

 

The exchange between the two leaders did not stop there. Calling Chaudhry an “idiot”, Bilawal stated that Sindhu is actually the indigenous name of the Indus River. 

 

“The Indus Valley civilization belongs to all of Pakistan. The word ‘Indus’ is the Latinized version of Sindhu, brought into English via the Greek name ‘Indos’ (Ἰνδός), which in turn was derived from the Persian pronunciation of Sindhu’,” he explained.

In reply to Chairman PPP’s explanation, Chaudhry maintained that Bilawal “obviously” has no knowledge of politics in Sindhu, alleging, “that’s the problem when you become chairman on fake will and not through political process (sic).”

 

However, the fact is that the Indus river is called Sindhu and the land of the Indus Valley Civilisation is called Sindhu Desh.