Mineral water Cos earning billions but paying nothing: CJP

LAHORE: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Mian Saqib Nisar, on Sunday directed a chartered accountant firm to conduct a forensic audit of a bottled mineral water brand and directed its counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and other bottled water manufacturing companies to sit together and bring forth a viable plan to rationalise the purchasing price of ground water.

In pursuance to court orders, the chief executive officers of different bottled water companies turned up before a two-judge bench at the Lahore registry, hearing a suo motu case against extraction of ground water by international and local bottled water manufacturing companies. “Companies drilling to access groundwater have made profits worth billions of rupees but they paid nearly nothing to the government," the chief justice regretted, adding it is the time to return to the country.

Justice Nisar remarked that a litre of water is sold for Rs50, but only one-eighth of this price is given to the government. "An international mineral water company earned Rs6 billion in profit in just a year. Anyone using natural water resources needs to be taxed," he said. "The children of Pakistan will not have access to water if this situation continues," Justice Nisar remarked.

The chief justice told the counsel that the court wanted to regulate ground water extraction by every industry like it did with the cement industry. Justice Ijazul Ahsan said the companies selling water are paying the lowest price to obtain the natural resource as compared to the rest of the world. Ahsan extended arguments to defend his client.

He was of the view that the business of companies selling bottled water are different from other industries as they extracted ground water and purified it before selling it to people. However, he said, other industries released polluted water after using the ground water.

Justice Ahsan noted that the company earned an average profit of Rs6 billion from bottled water business but it was not willing to pay a rational price for extracting ground water. However, the counsel insisted that the amount quoted by the bench was not profit but the sale of the company.

Chief Justice Nisar said to Aitzaz Ahsan that the court would order the government to also wave off the existing price of water (0.4 paisa per liter) as a charity if his client/ company was not able to pay a rational price. The chief justice directed the company to deposit a bank surety of Rs1 billion when Barrister Ahsan sought one-month time for deliberations with stakeholders and government authorities to rationalise the water price.

“It is better to ask them to take their all investment back to Switzerland,” the counsel responded to the chief justice’s offer. Chief Justice Nisar asked the counsel not to exploit the situation by saying that foreign investors would be discouraged in the country following judicial proceedings. “One cannot escape regulations being a foreign investor,” the chief justice added.

The top judge also lamented that the conduct of the companies showed they did not want to contribute to the country’s economy. He observed that the water was a precious natural source but would become rare for future generations if not preserved and regulated.

The chief justice ordered a forensic audit of the water company and appointed Kaukab Jamal Zubairi, an expert in auditing, brushing aside reservations of Barrister Aitzaz on the expert. The counsel was insisting that task should be given to one of top four chartered accountancy firms, saying a recent audit on Pakistan Kidney & Liver Transplant Institute (PKLI) conducted by Mr Zubairi contained grave factual errors.

Aitzaz also asked the CJP to give them/ company one month to present our own report on this, then after that you might get a forensic audit done,” said Ahsan.

However, the CJP declined his both pleas and directed Mr Zubairi to complete the audit within 15 days. “It will be decided after the forensic audit that how much the companies should pay to the government for water,” remarked the CJP. “The mineral water companies have been earning for the past 20 years [without paying for it],” added Justice Ijazul Ahsan.

“A sense of accountability has started to prevail among people. After this case, the companies will pay a suitable fee [for the water they use] and will sell [the mineral water] at a suitable price,” the CJP remarked. “The matter of water is an issue which cannot be neglected.”

Chief Justice Nisar also instructed his staff to randomly purchase bottles of famous mineral water companies for their analysis. Before concluding the proceedings, the chief justice reminded the lawyers that he would soon take housing societies to task for using ground water free of cost and selling the same to their residents.

Big housing societies obtain water from tubewells and charge residents for the water. These societies do not pay to the government.” The large developers are earning billions of rupees by using water free of cost. “We will take notice against big societies next week,” CJP Nisar observed.

Billboards: The CJP on Sunday directed the director general of the Lahore Development Authority to ensure enforcement of LHC’s order pertaining to removal of huge billboards from buildings and roads in provincial capital and other cities.

The CJP issued this order while hearing a petition moved by advocate Muhammad Azhar siddqiue in public interest. Mr Siddique argued that LDA and other authorities had removed billboards from The Mall in the light of LHC Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi’s order but the same operation clean up had not been carried out on other roads of the city or in other cities of Punjab. The counsel pointed out that the huge billboards had destroyed the beauty of historical buildings. To it, the CJP ruled that the LHC had already issued an order to remove billboards and the same should be implemented in letter and spirit. The CJP went on to say that the matter regarding removal of billboards in other provinces would be heard at the principal seat in Islamabad next week.

Drugs in schools: Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar on Sunday took a suo moto notice on use of drugs in private as well as government educational institutes and summoned a report from the Lahore CCPO and anti narcotics force in one week.

The CJP converted the petition of a civil society member advocate Abdullah Malik against the use of drugs by students into suo motu notice. The petitioner-lawyer pleaded that easy availability of drugs in educational institutions had jeopardized the future of thousands of students while Punjab government is enjoying deep slumber. He pointed out that the Punjab government had committed criminal negligence by not launching a crackdown on peddlers, adding that the future of the country would be under peril if the youth were not helped get rid of curse of drugs.

To it, the CJP remarked: “The use of drugs in educational institutes is destroying our future, adding that drugs like Ice etc. are easily available to students. We will have to crush drug mafia with an iron hand to save our future.” The court adjourned the hearing till next week and sought a report from the Lahore Capital City Police Officer and anti-narcotics force.