SC summons all four chief secretaries in mineral water case

ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (APP):Supreme Court on Wednesday summoned all four chief secretaries of provinces in-person in a case pertaining to the water consumption by mineral water companies. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar also rejected the report submitted by the Advocate General Punjab regard taxes imposed on bottle water companies.
Advocate General Punjab while submitting report stated that the Punjab government has divided the use of water in three categories to extract water from areas facing water scarcity, mineral water companies have to pay Rs0.75 per liter whereas in areas where there is no shortage of water, the companies are required to pay Rs0.15 per liter.
To this, the Chief Justice while expressing displeasure said that “it seems that authorities have put the donkey into the well, it would rather be better not to take any money at all”, the Chief Justice added.
Mineral water companies were themselves willing to pay Rs0.50 to 0.75, so what the government adding in it, Justice Nisar Maintained.
Justice Nisar noted that a the Nestle company sold off billions of rupees worth of water by acquiring a six acre land in Sheikhupura and the government imposing just Rs. 0.75 per liter on them. He also lamented that the country was drying up but no government representative was seen at the conference held on water scarcity, organized by the Supreme Court recently.
Subsequently, while summoning all chief secretaries of the four provinces, the bench ordered a forensic audit of mineral water companies with a report to be submitted on a weekly basis in the court.