Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has given additional charge of the post of FBR Chairman to Member Operations Inland Revenue Dr. Muhammad Irshad, a BPS 22 officer of the Inland Revenue Service.

According to a communiqué issued by the Ministry of Finance which said that upon the superannuation of the Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Nisar Muhammad on Wednesday, the Finance Minister has assigned Dr. Muhammad Irshad, Member (Operations-Inland Revenue) to look after the work of Chairman FBR, till the appointment of a regular Chairman.

The former chairman retired on reaching the age of superannuation. He was appointed to this important position on 17 November 2015. It is pertinent to mention here that the FBR during its tenure had achieved a tax target of Rs 3,104 billion in 2015-16 for the first time in history.

Dr. Muhammad Irshad will look after the work of the FBR Chairman in addition to his own duties as member, but he will retire on 22 April. Irshad remained Chief Commissioner-IR (OPS), RTO, Karachi and Lahore in 2012 to 2014. It is worth mentioning here that the government had promoted Dr. Muhammad Irshad and Chaudhry Safdar from grade 21 to grade 22 on August 5 2016 by surpassing four senior officers of FBR Haroon Mohammad Khan Tareen, Rana Ahmed, Riaz Ahmed Khan and Seema Majid. These officers had filed a petition against the promotion of two junior FBR officers.

The petitioners’ counsel argued before the court that the promoted officers were junior to them and that Chaudhry Safdar was number 10 on the seniority list, while Dr Irshad was number 16.The counsel said the petitioners had been at the top of the seniority list and were not promoted and alleged that the petitioners were denied promotions on political grounds.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan in a public rally had criticised Member Inland Revenue (IR) operation Dr Irshad for fixing the tax records of PM Nawaz Sharif and his family members. However, it was strongly rejected by the FBR in a press release at that time.