LAHORE: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered a cement factory to deposit Rs 100 million in the Dams Fund in a case relating drying up of Katas Raj temple pond.

A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, while hearing a suo motu case pertaining to the depleted Katas Raj pond in Chakwal, ordered the factory to pay Rs 80 million as payment for water utilised by the factory and Rs 20 million as fine for misleading the court.

During the hearing, a special committee, tasked by the court during the last hearing to visit the DG Cement factory in Chakwal to determine how it stored water, submitted its report.

The CJ said that factories claimed to have stored rainwater, but this was a lie as they had, in fact, extracted groundwater through tube-wells.

The bench ordered that groundwater should not be extracted through tube-wells from the area around Katas Raj pond.

The bench also directed that cement factories would not extract groundwater in future.