Essential reforms Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq In this article, we are presenting some fundamental institutional/structural reforms in tax system prior to announcement of budget 2019-20. For the last many decades, the main emphasis of every budget has been meaningless and cumbersome changes in the existing outdated, oppressive and anti-growth tax system, which itself...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Who has a harder fight than he who is trying to overcome himself”—Thomas A Kempis (c 1380-1471) a German-Dutch canon regular (priest). According to the English dictionary, the word ‘conquer’ is a verb which means to take control or possession of foreign land, or a group of people, by force. In a metaphysical...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The Lahore Resolution of March 23, 1940, widely believed to have paved the way for a separate homeland for the Muslims of India on the basis of “two-nation” theory, received a jolt in 1971 when Bengalis claimed separate state—present day Bangladesh. Many historians, academicians and political analysts say that even after existence...Read More

Dream of an egalitarian state   Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq  While celebrating 79th National Day, many Pakistanis expressed bafflement as to how a state purportedly created in the name of ‘Islam’ is juxtaposed with the term ‘Republic’. They wonder how a Parliament, where majority is not that of theologians, enacts Western-inspired laws and...Read More

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