A judge in Pakistan's Supreme Court has cautioned the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan over retaining "delinquents" like Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem and Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) chairman Shahzad Akbar in important positions of authority which would belie the most elementary principles of good governance and expose the Premier's complicity with them, reported local media.
"Section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 2001 was blatantly breached in the case of Mrs Sarina Isa -- the wife of Justice Qazi Faez Isa -- on the unlawful directions of the ARU chairman with the concurrence of the law minister. Thus, they breached the statutory confidentiality of Isa's tax returns, observed Supreme Court Justice Yahya Afridi in his separate note accompanying the SC's detailed verdict issued in the Justice Isa case on Saturday following its April 26, 2021, short order, according to Dawn.
Justice Afridi who was part of a 10-member Supreme Court bench that overturned its June 19, 2020 majority order in the Justice Isa case that required verification of and a subsequent inquiry by the tax authorities into three foreign properties in the name of the wife and children of Justice Isa, said the Pakistani Publication.
If officers other than those from the income tax department access a taxpayer's records, it will constitute a criminal offence, according to Section 216 of the ITO which ensures confidentiality.
Justice Afridi observed that Section 216 of the ITO commands confidentiality of the information of a tax filer and any breach exposes the delinquent to penal consequences.
The Justice further stated that such consequences are attracted in the present case to those giving the unlawful directions, namely Mirza Shahzad Akbar with the concurrence of the law minister, the tax officials executing the unlawful directions in breach of Section 216 of the ITO and the prime minister, who despite clear and unanimous finding of misdoings of the named delinquents by the apex court, retained them in positions of authority, according to Dawn.
( With inputs from ANI )
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