ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a special committee to visit the premises of DG Khan cement factory in Chakwal district to determine how it stored water for its requirement.

The committee will be headed by chief of the Supreme Court’s human right cell Rana Amir Saleem who will furnish a report before the court about the capacity of the reservoirs built by the cement factory as well as whether the ponds were filled by extracting water from the aquifer or the rainwater.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken a suo motu of the drying out of Katas Raj pond, considered sacred by Hindus. The court will take up the matter again at its Lahore registry.

Takes suo motu notice of drying out of Katas Raj pond

On Nov 6, the apex court had clamped a ban on extracting underground water with a directive for the cement factories to make alternative arrangements to meet their water needs.

Director General of the Environment Protection Agency Farzana Altafshah will also be member of the committee which has been tasked with finding out how many tubewells have been dismantled by the cement factories, including Bestway Cement.

The court allowed the committee to register a case over non-cooperation on the part of the management of the cement factories.

The committee will also take samples of water from the reservoirs and the commissioner concerned has been directed to fully cooperate with it.

The court was told that the DG Khan Cement was operating only two tube-wells for domestic use of its workers, but Waseem Raza, appearing on behalf of civil society, claimed that the factories were filling their reservoirs through pipelines by allegedly extracting water from the underground.

The court asked for the record of the meteorological department to suggest how much rain fell during the period when the water reservoirs were filled.

It also ordered that the tubewells which had been dismantled be filled with concrete.

The News and Jang issued notices

Meanwhile, the same bench issued notices to The News and Jang newspapers for running the headline: ‘Govt lacks capability, planning, says CJP’ in their issue of Nov 14.

“We are surprised as the court never made such observations about the federal government; in fact some observations were made against the Capital Development Authority (CDA),” the chief justice observed while dictating an order.

“This is an instance of gross misreporting on behalf of the media group,” the order said.

The court issued notices to the editors, printers and publishers of the two newspapers to explain why action under the relevant law should not be taken against them.

The matter will be taken up again on Nov 15.

Daniyal Aziz withdraws appeal

A five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed disposed of an intra-court appeal by PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz when he withdrew his appeal.

“I have instructions to withdraw the appeal,” argued Advocate Ali Raza before the bench which ultimately dismissed the case as withdrawn.

On June 28, the apex court had convicted Daniyal Aziz for committing its contempt and sentenced him with imprisonment “till rising of the court”.

“Taking a lenient view of the matter, we convict him under Section 5 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 and sentence him with imprisonment till rising of the court today,” said a 17-page order.

With the sentence, Daniyal Aziz was also disqualified for five years under Article 63(1)(g) of the Constitution.

The PML-N leader did not explain to the media about his sudden decision to withdraw his appeal.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2018