President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to address the grievances of tax advisers and lawyers against officials of the Corporate Tax Office (CTO) Islamabad.
According to a letter from the President’s Secretariat to the FBR Chairman on Monday, necessary action should be taken on a petition received from the Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA) against FBR officials.
The LTBA has requested the President’s intervention, stating that the Cabinet and Members of the Association strongly condemn the use of threatening and contemptuous language by CTO officials. The LTBA cited remarks such as, “Irresponsible blame-shifting will not overshadow the facts. Blaming without any proof can lead to severe consequences for the lawyer.
Accusing an officer of the Government of Pakistan in a few fancy lines without any proof can result in legal action against the lawyer, which he seems to have forgotten,” directed at Waheed Shahzad Butt, Advocate Supreme Court.
The Association argues that 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. This, they say, is against the Lawyers Welfare and Protection Act, 2023, particularly Sections 2 and 9, which define “intimidation, threat, coercion, insult, or interference” with a lawyer performing his professional duty as an offence punishable under law.
The LTBA has requested the President to take the following steps:
- Initiate disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020;
- Direct the said tax employee to issue a written apology and submit it before the honorable Federal Tax Ombudsman Office; and
- Refer the matter to the relevant police authorities for registration of an 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.
Haramzada Firon NAMROOD