Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued notices to Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue and FBR officials of Regional Tax Office Islamabad in response to a petition that challenged the order passed by the President of Pakistan to modify the directions issued by Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO).
Sources told Business Recorder that the IHC has issued notices in the constitutional petition against the President of Pakistan, special assistant to prime minister, chairman FBR and tax employee of RTO Islamabad on the issue of illegal attachment of bank account and acceptance of representation filed by the FBR under section 32 of FTO Ordinance, 2000, against an order passed by the FTO.
It is learnt that the petition was moved by a former employee of an Islamabad-based IT company through Advocate Waheed Shahzad Butt, through which he challenged the acceptance of representation by the President against the order passed by the FTO Chaudhry Abdur Rauf.
The petitioner stated, "Order passed by the President on the basis of vague, incompetent and unlawful representation filed by the FBR under section 32 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000, against the order passed by FTO is patently illegal, without lawful jurisdiction and void ab initio. The available forum of the President has the mandate to diagnose, investigate, redress and rectify any injustice done to a person through maladministration of tax employees administering tax laws. Sections 12, 13 and 14 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000, give ample powers to the FTO to initiate appropriate corrective action or disciplinary/criminal proceedings against a tax employee, who in the opinion of the FTO has committed "maladministration" as defined u/s 2(3) of the FTO Ordinance. It is the prime duty of office of the President of Pakistan to dispense justice and functionaries representing office of the learned President are supposed to uphold the dignity of law and respect command and orders of the courts.
On the other hand, the process of law is being abused badly by the office of the President due to illegal acceptance of representation. The office of President is involved in sheer violation of provisions of FTO Ordinance, 2000, and Constitution of Pakistan," said the petition.
The IHC order stated, "Through the instant writ petition, the petitioner Masud Reza impugns the order dated 31.05.2017, passed by the President of Pakistan, whereby representation of respondent No 2 against the findings/ order, dated 20.02.2017, of the Federal Tax Ombudsman, was partly accepted."
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that respondent No 2 attached the petitioner''s bank accounts almost two years after the assessment order, which was not served on the petitioner; that the petitioner''s appeal against the said assessment order was accepted by the commissioner (appeals); that despite the acceptance of the petitioner''s appeal, the petitioner''s bank accounts were not detached; that in such circumstances, the petitioner was constrained to file a representation before the Federal Tax Ombudsman; that the finding/order dated 20.02.2017 was in the petitioner''s favour; that prior to this, the petitioner''s bank account were detached; that representation of respondent No 2 to the President of Pakistan was partly allowed, however, the directions given by the Federal Tax Ombudsman to respondent No 2 to comply with the order of the appellate forum were maintained.
The counsel further submitted that the act of the officials of respondent No 2 not to detach the petitioner''s bank accounts after the petitioner''s appeal was accepted, which was perverse arbitrarily, unreasonable and oppressive.
The IHC ordered to issue pre-admission notices to respondent number 2 to 4, re-list the case after the summer vacations and the exemption sought for is allowed, subject to all just and legal exceptions.
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