Elections, corruption & voters
Dr. Ikramul Haq“The usefulness and the mandate of….an elected body under the Constitution have been defeated by continuous and widespread corruption including misapplication of public funds and `horse-trading’, change of loyalties in violation of law by the holders of representative…
Recouping tax losses judiciously
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq“Judicial overreach is when the judiciary starts interfering with the proper functioning of the legislative or executive organs of the government. This is totally uncharacteristic of the role of the judiciary envisaged under the Constitution…
FATF: FBR’s challenges
Dr. Ikramul HaqIn June 2021, Pakistan is going to face yet another review of its remaining compliance of three action items, out of total 27 under anti-money laundering and combatting financing of terrorism [AML-CFT] mandates agreed with Financial Action Task…
Variety is spice of life
Huzaima Bukhari“The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety”― Felix MendelssohnIf the whole world were to follow the same lifestyle—same language, same clothes, same food, same mannerism, same outlook, same culture—how morbid and mundane it would all appear! Nothing…
fatf grey listing caused ‘$38b losses’: myth or reality
Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq & Abdul Rauf ShakooriAs a result of the recently concluded meeting of FATF in February 2021, Pakistan is destined to remain in the list of jurisdictions with increased monitoring (also known as the Grey List)….
Tribute to womanhood
Huzaima Bukhari“Woman is a delicate creature with strong emotions who has been created by the Al-Mighty God to shoulder responsibility for educating society and moving towards perfection. God created woman as symbol of His own beauty and to give solace…
FBR, tax potential & enforcement
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr Ikramul HaqThe Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has achieved the target of first eight months [July 2020 to February 2021] of the current fiscal year, which is commendable, especially when the economic growth is extremely slow…
Charity via empowerment
Huzaima Bukhari“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it”―John D RockefellerWhen a man came begging to our holy Prophet, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) for a couple of dirhams, instead of giving him alms he (PBUH) bought…
Governing badly, expecting miracles!
Dr. Ikramul HaqAs two-thirds of the tax collected is in the form of indirect taxes and one-fourth of the entire amount comes from petroleum and petroleum products at various stages (which is passed on to consumers), the overall incidence is…