KARACHI, Nov 30: The Sindh High Court restrained on Tuesday the Nestle Milkpak from initiating 'any commercial or industrial activity, including setting up of a bottling plant' , in the 20-acre plot leased out to it by the provincial government in the area earmarked in Gadap Town for educational and health projects.

Allowing an application for interim injunction moved by the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation and other institutions in their pending suit for declaration and permanent injunction, Justice S. Ali Aslam Jafri observed that water extraction by the proposed bottling plant would 'diminish water deposits in the acquifer rapidly and shall adversely affect the plaintiffs' right to use the underground water according to their genuine needs'.

An irreparable loss would thus be caused to the plaintiffs and the balance of convenience required that an injunction be granted in their favour pending the hearing of their suit.

The huge area, designated as 'education city', according to the plaintiffs, lies at Deh Chuhar, Gadap Town, along the link road between the Superhighway and the National Highway.

Besides SIUT, which was allotted 100 acres, Aga Khan Hospital and Medical College Foundation was given 653 acres, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology 300 acres, Sindh Madrassatul Islam 200 acres, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology 200 acres, Ziauddin Medical University 25 acres and Newport Institute of Communication and Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital 20 acres each.

The institutions approached the high court and filed a suit when 20 acres were allotted to Nestle in October 25, 2003. SZABIST moved a writ petition, saying that the 20 acres leased out to multinational were carved out from the land allotted to it.

A restraint order was first passed by a division bench in the petition. An ad interim stay order was passed in the suit and was extended from time to time till Tuesday.

Contesting the suit and the petition, the provincial government law officers denied that a formal decision was ever taken to set up an 'education city; that the institutions were allotted land far below the prevailing market rate; that Nestle was leased out 20 acres at a much higher price; that the plaintiffs were functioning as commercial concerns, charging hefty fees for the services provided by them; that SZABIST and other institutions were given an opportunity to pay the differential between the allotment and market prices; and that the plaintiffs had failed to carry out any work on the land allotted to them while the Nestle plant was well on its way to start operations and provide jobs.

Barrister Qazi Faez Isa appeared for the plaintiffs, Barrister Wasim Sajjad for Nestle and Additional Advocate-General Abbas Ali for the provincial government.

Dealing with the plaintiffs' assertion that the area was meant to host an education city and no commercial or industrial concern could be allotted land in it, Justice Jafri referred in his 36-page order to a provincial cabinet decision in October 2001 and a city district government meeting in February 2003 that declared that an education city would be established along the Link Road.

It was, however, on the plaintiffs' contention that they would be deprived of their due share in the underground water that the judge based his order. He noted that according to the plaintiffs, the Nestle bottling plant would extract 306 million litres of water annually for the sale of 228 million litres of bottled water.

'No civilized society', he observed, 'shall permit an unfettered exploitation of its natural resources'. Water sustains life and groundwater was like 'public trust'. The future needs of our children are of prime importance and dealing with the equitable relief of injunction, the court has to keep them in view, he said.