In a major setback for Islamabad, World Bank President Ajay Banga clarified that his institution has no role in settling the Indus Water Treaty issue between India and Pakistan.

“We have no role to play beyond a facilitator. There’s a lot of speculation in the media about how the World Bank will step in & fix the problem but it’s all bunk. The World Bank’s role is merely as a facilitator,” he was quoted as saying by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

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Mr Banga is currently in India and had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Ever since India put the 1960 Indus Water Treaty on hold in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack last month, there have been reports from Islamabad saying Pakistan would approach the World Bank to get India’s “unilateral and illegal” decision reversed.