26 October 2004	Tuesday	11 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Oct 25: The Sindh High Court reserved its order on Monday in an application moved by a number of medical and educational institutions against installation of a water bottling plant by a multinational concern in the area allotted to them.

Appearing for the Aga Khan University Hospital, the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and other plaintiff institutions, Barrister Qazi Faez Isa argued at length that the application and the main suit agitated a matter of public interest. The allottees obtained hundreds of acres in the area, along the link road between the national and super highways as they were given to understand that it was earmarked for an 'education city'. Nestle, a multinational industrial undertaking, had now been leased out a 20-acre plot carved out from the land allotted to the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology.

A matter of deepest concern, the plaintiffs' counsel maintained, was that the allottee concern proposed to extract 306 million litres of water from the common sub-soil water acquifer. The water extraction would cause an environmental disaster. Besides, allotment of plots to industrial and commercial concerns would change the character of the 'education city' and render it polluted and overcrowded, he submitted. The facility was meant to cater to the needs of the US troops stationed at Kandahar, Afghanistan, he said.

Arguing on behalf of the defendant multinational, Barristers Wasim Sajjad and Ali Sajjad said the litigation had nothing to do with the public interest. It involved a dispute between different commercial organizations appearing before the court as plaintiffs and defendants. The Nestle plant had been in operation for six months when it was directed by the court to suspend its operations by an interim order in May. The plant was installed after approval of the licensing authority, the provincial government, and other agencies and civic bodies involved. The installation was allowed by the court, though at the defendant company's own risk.

The Nestle counsel maintained that the plant would suck only subsoil water 600 feet below the ground allotted to it. The salty subsoil water was unfit for human consumption. The plant would treat and bottle it for human use. There was no question of water depletion in the area. They said the defendant had made a huge investment and had taken every step in accordance with the law and rules.

Additional Advocate-General Abbas Ali submitted no education city project was ever approved by the provincial government. The plots in the area were not meant to be amenity plots, though they were leased out at much below the market price. That was why certain allotments were cancelled under the Sindh Urban State Land (Cancellation of Allotments, conversions and Exchanges) Ordinance, 2000. Many of the plaintiffs have violated the lease terms by not undertaking any construction on the site. They have made no investment so far and have only put up their signboards on the plots allotted to them. Nestle has paid Rs 500,000 per acre as rent against Rs 250,000 or even less paid by some of the plaintiffs, the AAG said.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in its comments that the project did not require initial environmental examination or environmental impact assessment under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act. The City District Government had no objection to the lease or the project. CDGK counsel Manzoor Ahmed adopted the AAG's arguments.

Justice Syed Ali Aslam Jaferi reserved his order on the application for an interim order pending the disposal of the suit after hearing the various sides.

RELEASE ORDERED: A bench of High Court of Sindh, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi, on Monday ordered release of Inspector Ghulam Rasool of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on a personal bond of Rs50,000, adds APP.

The applicant sought release after he was remanded to judicial custody by an ANF court for failing to appear before the court trying a narcotics case.