Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq While celebrating 79th Pakistan Day, we cannot ignore that the country is still facing multiple challenges—economic uncertainties, regional disparities, income and wealth inequalities. abject poverty, political antagonism, religious bigotry, intolerance, victimization in the name of accountability, disharmony between the centre and provinces, terrorism, sectarianism, militancy, extremism, corruption, absence of...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq It is time for the budget-makers of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to devise a comprehensive strategy to tap the real tax potential of the country, which is not less than Rs 8 trillion at federal level alone. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has been using all negative tactics and high...Read More

Sweeping legal changes Dr. Ikramul Haq[*] During 2002 Pakistan witnessed an avalanche of legal changes in various laws including the 1973 constitution, through innumerable Presidential Ordinances, aimed at ensuring “continuity” of Musharraf’s rule and policies. These changes — positive or negative, justified or unjustified, valid or invalid — generated a lot of controversies as concerned...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”—Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. Nelson Mandela was so right when he opined that there could be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. We usually tend to...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq “The Laffer Curve, by the way, was not invented by me; it has its origins way back in time. For example, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun wrote in his fourteenth-century work The Muqaddimah: It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments....Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq On February 22, 2019, the Government of Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) published two tax directories—‘Parliamentarians Tax Directory’and ‘Tax Directory for the year ending 30 June 2017’ (these have been tabulated from returns filed manually and electronically till February 21, 2019 for tax year 2017). As per previous practice, these could have...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq “If we realise that the FBR cannot be fixed, we will create a new FBR. This is because Pakistan’s survival is linked to it. It’s not about our liking or disliking: if our tax collection authority does not function properly, it could lead to a security risk. No nation...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal”—Aristotle With the introduction of biometric verification whereby a person can be uniquely identified by evaluating one or more distinguishing biological traits, including fingerprints, hand and earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA and signatures; one thing stands confirmed;...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq “If we realise that the FBR cannot be fixed, we will create a new FBR. This is because Pakistan’s survival is linked to it. It’s not about our liking or disliking: if our tax collection authority does not function properly, it could lead to a security risk. No nation that relies on...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The National Assembly, through Finance Act 2012, amended section 37(5) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and for the first time levied income tax on capital gain of immovable property. Punjab levied a similar tax in Finance Act 2013 contesting the authority of the federal government to do so. Who has the...Read More