ISLAMABAD: Hearing a suo motu case pertaining to deteriorated condition of Katas Raj Temple in Chakwal district, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Bestway Cement to refill the Katas Raj pond within a week.
A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Faisal Arab, directed the representative of the Bestway Cement to ensure presence of his lawyer Babar Sattar on the next hearing.
At the onset of the hearing on Wednesday, when a representative of the Bestway Cement apprised the court that they had engaged Babar Sattar as his lawyer, however he could not turn up, the chief justice expressed dismay over the absence of Babar Sattar, saying he should have felt his responsibility. The representative also told the court that company’s head was in London, thus he too could not appear.
To a court query, the representative of Bestway stated that the factory was using approximately 80,000 gallons of water per day. The chief justice asked, “Who has given you the right to use such a high quantity of underground water … the factory has caused heavy damages to environment of Chakwal district.”
Addressing the company’s representative, the chief justice maintained, “Don’t make lives of the people more miserable on the pretext of contributing to the foreign reserves by exporting cement.” The court directed the company to fill the pond of Katas Raj within a week at any cost and submit a compliance report.
The court directed the Punjab government to submit a detailed report containing the conditions under which the establishment of the cement factories was allowed in the area, besides report on the environmental pollution being caused by these factories in the area.
Appearing on notice, an assistant advocate general of Punjab informed the bench that the Bestway Cement had illegally installed a turbine which was sucking up huge quantity of underground water. The court directed that the illegal turbine be closed down immediately and a compliance report be submitted. The court also directed that a comprehensive report on the factories’ impact on the environment in ‘Zone B’ be submitted till next date of hearing.
The chief justice noted that the cement factories will not be allowed to operate at the cost of people’s health and observed that if it was found that the environment was being adversely affected, the court could order closing down of all such factories for the sake of environment and the human lives. He remarked that there will be no compromise on the environment as well as the condition of the Katas Raj temple.
Justice Arab noted that the factories were sucking huge quantity of water from the deep level for their use, adding to the miseries of the residents.
Salman Akram Raja, counsel for DG Khan Cement, however stated that his client was producing the permitted quantity of the product, thus was not a part of the problem.
The chief justice recalled that whenever he uses the Islamabad-Lahore motorway, he turns sad after looking at the sorry state of natural beauty which was still being destroyed mercilessly, adding that the mountains were still being destroyed by digging up on various pretexts.
The Bestway representative stated that the mountains alongside the Islamabad-Lahore motorway were not dug up or destroyed by his factory. The chief justice noted that the Potohar plateau was already facing water scarcity as the underground water level was very deep.
During the hearing, the chief justice observed that the judiciary was a part of the state and it will not step out of its constitutional jurisdiction, adding that it will definitely intervene wherever it would find any laxity. Later, the court adjourned the hearing for two weeks. On November 2, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken a suo motu notice on media reports that Katas Raj temple pond was drying out fast as nearby cement factories sucked up large quantities of groundwater through a number of drilled wells.
Published in Daily Times, December 14th 2017.
