Islamabad High Court Orders FBR to De-seal Jazz Headoffice

Islamabad High Court today ordered Federal Board of Revenue to de-seal Jazz’s head office.

In an interim order, issued moments ago, the court directed FBR to immediately de-seal the office to let the company continue its operations at once.

FBR was further directed to submit a compliance report to registrar of the court.

IHC observed that sealing of Jazz’s office offered clear danger for the provision of cellular services to millions of customers in the country.

Court further observed that FBR’s order for submission of noticed tax liability of Rs. 25 billion didn’t allow the company enough time to respond on the matter.

It must be recalled that FBR’s notice – sent to Jazz – demanded a Rs. 25 billion tax liability by 1PM on October 28, 2020. However, the notice itself reached Jazz’s office at 12:09PM on the same day.

This essentially meant that company was given just 50 minutes to act upon the notice or its office could be sealed.
As per reports, the Jazz’s office is now de-sealed.

FBR’s yesterday’s action met severe criticism from the business community. They said that clearly FBR was more than harsh towards Jazz and that the matter could be resolved amicably without hurting the business operations of a multinational company.

Business community also said that FBR’s action could send a very negative message to any foreign investors who could be considering Pakistan as their next destination for business operations.