Dr Ikramul Haq

On January 23, 2019, the Federal Finance Minister, Asad Umar, presented Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill of 2019 offering no concrete steps to harness the real tax potential, which at the federal level alone is not less than Rs. 8 trillion. The failure of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to meet the half-yearly target and […]

The predatory elite of Pakistan – militro-judicial-civil complex, businessmen-turned-politicians and absentee land owners – are responsible for the prevailing mess. While the country is trapped in a deadly debt quagmire, every government – military and civilian alike – begs for bailouts and then ironically talks about self-reliance. We keep on hearing about reforming the tax […]

Pakistan-literally means ‘Land of the Pure’- it is a unique country where the state patronises ‘corruption” (it includes amongst others tax evasion, money laundering, land grabbing, rent-seeking etc) for the rich and mighty. As for the weaker sections of society, even the higher judiciary shows a different yardstick-regularisation for the luxurious Grand Hayatt Tower and […]

The process of accountability must start from those who judge others. Any process of accountability lacking credibility and transparency is bound to fail, even bounce back. For sustainable democracy, accountability of all through an impartial and competent judiciary is essential. For independent judiciary, the judges must be men of integrity, blameless, and free from all […]

Since taking the oath on December 31, 2016 as 25th Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Mian Saqib Nisar, repeatedly stressed the need for speedy justice, but near to his retirement (January 18, 2019), things have deteriorated, instead of improving. According to the data available on the website of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan […]

Since the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007, Pakistan has been continuously entrapped in dreadful conflicts and grave crises. Country lacks leadership capable of pulling the state out of the mess created not only by long military rule but also under the decade of democracy [2008-18]. In today’s Pakistan there is not […]

Total income tax returns filed till the many times extended date [December 17, 2018] for tax year 2018 were 1,483,020 as compared to 1,756,982 persons on Active Taxpayers’ List (ATL), as per website of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), on the said date for tax year 2017. This shortfall of 273,962 returns was despite the […]

At the end of Musharraf era and general elections of 2008, citizens of Pakistan thought that their elected representatives would respect their mandate by establishing an egalitarian society and ensuring accountability of all, especially the mighty men in robes, khaki and mufti. The conduct of two governments during the Decade of Democracy (20018-13) frustrated their […]

Pakistan presents a classic case study of failure in every sphere of governance — the inefficient State institutions are the root cause of perpetual crises as they have no regard for the rights of the people. We need to correct the situation by restructuring all such institutions (no meaningful reforms have been done during the […]

In democracy, taxes play an important role — the elected representatives, who under Article 77 of the Constitution enjoy exclusive power to levy taxes, have greater responsibility to discharge their personal tax obligations and ensure enforcement of tax laws across the board. In Pakistan, unfortunately, record shows a very disturbing picture of non-compliance of tax […]