Huzaima Bukhari “Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect”—Eric Hoffer Way back in the 1960s, during our primary school days, our textbooks contained stories of children belonging to different provinces, even Bengalis when East Pakistan was under our flag. These used to be descriptive accounts of their lifestyle including...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect”—Eric Hoffer Way back in the 1960s, during our primary school days, our textbooks contained stories of children belonging to different provinces, even Bengalis when East Pakistan was under our flag. These used to be descriptive accounts of their lifestyle including...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq The biggest challenge on tax mobilisation front faced by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is bridging monstrous tax gap through automation and introduction of tax intelligence system and not levying more taxes or enhancing the rates of the existing ones—Rationalising tax system, Business Recorder, July 19, 2020.  “If we...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq Failure of the coalition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vis-à-vis economic governance, changing four finance ministers and five chairpersons of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) during its tenure since August 2018 has been in the media for the last many days. However, no one has noticed the failure to publish...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq After taking oath of 22nd Prime Minister of the country on August 18, 2018, Imran Khan has visited China three times (2018-2020 every year) during his 33 months in power. After the first visit to Saudi Arabia, which is customary for all new entrants, the Prime Minister showed the importance Pakistan attaches...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man’s life”—Daniel Webster Over time, this nation has developed a rather peculiar tradition. Whenever politicians are arrested or summoned before the courts, they rally huge crowds, usually armed with bludgeons and stones, and block the main thoroughfares, obstructing the path of emergency...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq ‘All lawmakers are taxpayers’—Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, Business Recorder, January 7, 2014 On the first day of 2014, the Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), while appearing before Public Accounts Committee, offered an illegal, rather obnoxious interpretation, that since “tax has been deducted from salary of a parliamentarian, therefore,...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The Federal Board of Revenue has released four documents in September 2020, namely, ‘FBR Year Book for 2019-20’, ‘Parliamentarians’ Tax Directory for Tax Year 2018’, ‘Tax Directory of all Taxpayers for Tax Year 2018’ and ‘Tax Directory Analysis for Tax Year 2018’. The data contained in these documents once again confirms lack...Read More

Need for adopting risk-based approach Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq & Abdul Rauf Shakoori The importance of risk-based approach in curtailing the movement of illicit flows of funds is paramount. The significance of this approach is also stressed in recommendations of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF highlighted this requirement in its very first...Read More

Dr Ikramul Haq According to the latest data available on the website of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the total number of cellular subscribers as on January 31, 2021 were 180 million (84% teledensity), out of which 95 million were 3G/4G subscribers (44.5% penetration), 2 million basic telephony users (1.3 teledensity) and 98 million broadband subscribers...Read More