Pak chief justice flays govt for neglecting ancient Hindu temple

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Chief Justice Saqib Nisar flayed the government on Thursday for its inability to safeguard one of the Hindu minority’s most revered places of worship, the Katas Raj temple in Chakwal, whose sacred pond is drying up.

Nisar described Katas Raj as a national heritage site that must be protected and directed authorities in Punjab province to form a committee to probe the issue.

The Supreme Court was hearing a suo moto case it had taken up on the basis of media reports that the pond at Katas Raj was drying up because nearby cement factories were drawing large amounts of groundwater through a number of wells.

Almost every home in Katas Waulah and Choa Saidan Shah, two nearby settlements, also draws water through bore wells in the absence of a water supply network. Eucalyptus saplings in the region have compounded the problem, reports suggested.

Nisar ordered authorities to fill the pond within a week. “The pond should be filled in a week even if water has to be carried in water-skins to fill it,” he said.

The Punjab government and a district coordination officer submitted reports to the court, and the additional advocate general made important disclosures about a cement factory operating in the area, saying its water usage is greater than that of the entire population of Chakwal city.

The Punjab government had earlier informed the Supreme Court that an aquifer feeding the pond at Katas Raj was under stress and this has caused a drastic fall in the water level.