Stating that Islamabad's key interest in Kashmir was to secure its water resources, a report held that a conflict over land between the people of Kashmir and the govt. of India would soon become history but a war over water between Pakistan and Kashmir was "inevitable in future".

In a report �€˜The Final Settlement: Restructuring India-Pakistan Relations', the Strategic Foresight Group said that if India and Pakistan took a political decision to restructure their relations, they would have to ensure that �€œwater serves as a flow to bring them together, rather than taking them further on the course of conflict."

The 109-page report of the Mumbai-based body said Pakistan's per capita water availability had declined from 5,600 cubic metres at the time of independence to 1200 cubic metres in 2005. It was expected to reach the threshold level of 1,000 cubic metres before 2010, or even 2007.

Stating that the current army leaders in Pakistan, including Gen Pervez Musharraf, were keen on ensuring water supply to Punjab at the cost of Sindh as they purchased land in Punjab, the report held that while all Pakistani provinces were suffering from water shortages, �€œthere is a tendency to force Sindh to bear a disproportionately higher share of burden than Punjab."

It held that, hence, Pakistan's primary interest in Kashmir was to secure its water resources in order to satisfy Punjab and contain Sindh, was in confrontation with interests of people of Kashmir on both sides of LoC.

The reports concluded that a conflict over land between the people of Kashmir and the government of India would soon become a thing of the past, but on the other hand, �€œa water war between Kashmir and Pakistan is inevitable in the future."