Dr. Ikramul Haq  “Inflation is taxation without legislation—Milton Friedman—Editorial of November 11, 2009 in Wall Street Journal, titled, Taxation without Legislation The budget for fiscal year 2020-21 was made amidst very difficult times when the country was suffering immensely—in terms of human casualties and economic hardships. It was claimed by the coalition government of Pakistan...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq & Abdul Rauf Shakoori The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), as an inter-governmental and international watchdog body, is playing an important role to protect our financial system from those who intend to pollute it. The organization works with an objective to identify the jurisdictions which pose higher risk to the...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq Trade is used as an ally for money laundering by misdeclarations of goods, under-invoicing and over-invoicing—Justice Ayesha Malik, paper read at International Judicial Conference 2012. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its document, FATF study ‘Trade-based Money Laundering [June 23, 2006] highlighted ‘Case Study 3’ [page 11] that unfortunately...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq & Abdul Rauf Shakoori There are three main methods by which criminal organisations and terrorist financiers move money for the purpose of disguising its origins and integrating it into the formal economy. The first is through the use of the financial system; the second involves the physical movement of money...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Great leaders create more leaders, not followers. Great leaders have vision, share vision, and inspire others to create their own”—Roy T Bennett The Light In the Heart A review of the last fifteen years of democratic rule in Pakistan reveals quite an interesting scenario. Two major political parties have been taking turns since...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari, Dr. Ikramul Haq & Abdul Rauf Shakoori The mere claims of authorities dealing with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asian Pacific Group (APG) for complying with 26 out of 27 action items agreed in June 2018 not only failed to yield the desired results but were handed over with a further six-point...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq   The outdated and oppressive tax structures at federal and provincial levels have created further fiscal mess and how come out of it is discussed in Towards Flat, Low-rate, Broad and Predictable Taxes’ (PRIME Institute, Islamabad, published in December 2020, available free at: https://primeinstitute.org/towards-flat-low-rate-broad-and-predictable-taxes/). A webinar on this book was held on...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom”—Charles Spurgeon While...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq Through the Finance Act, 2021 [“the Act”], the Parliament has made an amendment with retrospective application to override the well-established principle that what is not “income” under the income tax law cannot be taxed, and where there is no sale of “goods” or providing and rendering of services between...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq It is a cardinal principle that what is not “income” cannot be taxed under the income tax law (presently in operation is Income Tax Ordinance, 200I]. In Pakistan, a misconception prevails that National Assembly can declare anything “income” through the Finance Act, passed as Money Bill every year, in...Read More