The important questions about the Indus waters are not about whether or not the Pakistani state is "crafty" or the Indian state a "bully". The critical transnational issues are those stemming from the complex hydrologic interconnectivity of the Indus basin waters that are not given scope in the Indus Water Treaty. This criticism of Ramaswamy R Iyer's article "Pakistan's Questionable Move on Water" (27 March) argues for an understanding of the issue from a relational and context-specific perspective on law and geography.