ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to address grievances of tax advisers/lawyers against the officials of the Corporate Tax office (CTO) Islamabad.
According to a letter (Redressal of Grievances) of the President’s Secretariat to FBR Chairman on Monday, necessary action be taken on a petition received from Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA) against the FBR officials, the letter added.
Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA) has requested the President that Cabinet and Members of the Lahore Tax Bar Association strongly condemn for using threatening, and contemptuous tone “Irresponsible blame-shifting will not overshadow the facts without any proof of blaming which can lead to severe consequences for the lawyer”. “Accusing an officer of Government of Pakistan just in a few fancy lines without any proof can result in legal action against the lawyer which he seems to have forgotten” against Waheed Shahzad Butt, Advocate Supreme Court. Such remarks, coming from a government functionary in an official reply, amount to institutional intimidation and are entirely incompatible with the decorum of quasi-judicial proceedings before the FTO, which is against “The Lawyers Welfare and Protection Act, 2023”, particularly Sections 2 and 9, defines “intimidation, threat, coercion, insult, or interference” with a lawyer performing his professional duty as an offence punishable under law.
LTBA has requested the President to take the following steps:
(i); Initiate the disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020 and (ii); direct the said tax employee to issue a written apology and submit the same before the honourable Federal Tax Ombudsman Office.
Refer the matter to the relevant Police Authorities for registration of a FIR against the said tax employee under the applicable provisions of the lawyers Welfare and Protection Act, 2023, in view of the intimidation and harassment caused to a practicing Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, LTBA added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
