"Let the decision of the provincial government be placed before the court on Monday in Lahore," said the court order. The court said after hearing all the parties it shall decide what rate is charged on water previously extracted by the bottling beverage companies. Prof Dr Muhammad Ahsan Siddiqui, an environmental scientist, filed inspection report of water samples of Nestle, Karachi plant. The Chief Justice on October 27 last visited Nestle plant at the Port Qasim, Karachi, with Dr Ahsan Siddiqui, Munnawar Ali, Assistant Registrar Supreme Court and Advocate Zafar Iqbal Kulanauri and directed them to submit a comprehensive report.
The court directed Dr Ahsan Siddiqui to inspect the eight bottling companies in Punjab after inspecting their brands from the market and submit the comprehensive report. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing suo motu on the extraction of groundwater from the bottling companies. The Chief Justice said billions of rupees water has been used by the companies without paying any single penny.
A few bottled companies' owners objected to levy of Re1 per litre on water, saying they are already facing losses. The Chief Justice asked them if they can't pay Re1 per litre, close down factories instead of bearing losses. The groundwater is a national wealth and it belongs to the entire society, he added.
Zafar Iqbal Kalanauri, who was appointed amicus curiae (friend of court), proposed that Rs 5 per litre be charged on Nestle and all other companies which are bottling and selling water to consumers. He also suggested charging water extracted till today.
Zafar Iqbal said that Nestle does not seem to have permission to extract water in any of their factories. He said it transpired that Nestle Pakistan is occupying government land without any lease agreement and their allotment should be considered cancelled. It is further contended that Nestle Pakistan Limited had started raising construction on the land without seeking proper permission from competent authorities and the construction being illegal could be sealed and demolished under Section 7-A of Sindh Building Control Ordinance (SBCO). Prof Dr Ahsan Siddiqui said that extensive water drawing may seriously harm the natural aquifer. He said wastewater produced with such high salt concentration would have adverse effects on the micro-environment, discharging waste water with TDS (total dissolved solids) more than 3500 ppm (parts per million) is prohibited in Sindh Environmental Protection Act of 2014 due to its adverse effects on social and ecological surroundings. He recommended installing a waste treatment plant or salt recovery plant for RO (reverse osmosis) reject water to control the utter violation of Sindh Environmental Protection Act of 2014, until such time operations must be stopped to save the environment from this pollution wrath.