Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has directed a chartered accountant firm to conduct a forensic audit of a bottled mineral water brand, and directed the latter’s counsel, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, and representatives of other bottled water manufacturing companies to sit together and bring forth a viable plan to rationalise the purchase price of groundwater.
“The children of Pakistan will not have access to water if this situation continues.” The chief justice told Ahsan that the court wants to regulate groundwater extraction by every industry like it did with the cement industry.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan said that the companies selling water are paying the lowest price to obtain the natural resource as compared to the rest of the world.
Aitzaz Ahsan extended arguments to defend his client.
He is of the view that the business of companies selling bottled water differs from other industries as they extract groundwater and purify it before selling it.
Justice Ahsan noted that the company earned an average profit of Rs6bn from the bottled water business, but was unwilling to pay a rational price for extracting groundwater.
However, counsel Aitzaz Ahsan insisted that the amount quoted by the bench was not profit, but rather the company’s sale figures.
Chief Justice Nisar told the counsel that the court would order the government to waive the existing price of water (0.4 paisa per litre) as a charity if his client/company was not able to pay a rational price.
He ordered a forensic audit of the water company and appointed Kaukab Jamal Zubairi, an expert in auditing, brushing aside Aitzaz Ahsan’s reservations.
The counsel had insisted that the task be given to one of top four chartered accountancy firms, saying that a recent audit on the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute (PKLI), conducted by Zubairi, contained grave factual errors.