I attended a seminar of the Asia Oceania Tax Consultant's Association, jointly hosted by the All Pakistan Bar Association in collaboration with the Income Tax Bar Association, Karachi. Several delegates from overseas attended the seminar. I attended the seminar as asked by Arshad Siraj, one of the organisers after Rehan Hasan Naqvi, my mentor and one of the patrons and founder members of Asia Oceania Tax Consultants Association, founded more than a decade ago.
The paper read by Dr. Ishrat Hussain, the Governor, State Bank, was not only thought-provoking, but gave an insight into our economic retardation. The Governor, State Bank, should have observed the etiquette to sit through the whole seminar.
As per schedule as a chief guest he was required to speak at a later stage, but he spoke much before his allocated time and left immediately just when the next speaker said a few sentences.
It is a very insulting act for our leaders of the senior and junior bureaucracy to only speak one's view and not bother to listen to others, the question of agreeing to other's viewpoint is far-fetched idea.
Ather Saeed also presented his paper of the double taxation agreement of residents and non-residents. Although it was a very dry subject, but was presented so craftily and finished in the allocated time. Though he censured many contents dining the speech, but the speaker did not disrupt the continuity, above all during the whole seminar.
At the end Ali Asghar Rahim, the General Secretary of Income Tax Bar Association, Karachi, apologised for any error, mistake or lapse by the organisers, which was apparently untraceable. Maybe Rahim was referring to the wrong-spelled name of mine on the certificate of participation, which is a rectifiable mistake. I left when the cultural evening started, which was also miraculously on time.
The time of dinner was 7 pm, and much to my frustration it started on time, thus I took dinner two hours before my scheduled time. Lastly, certain quarters during the dinner told me that all the foreign delegates, organisers, government officials are having their dinner in an adjacent room separately, the rest of the participants consisting of members of Income Tax Bar Association supposed to be outcastes.
The menu of dinner was excellent, but without any soft drinks or drinking water available in the main hall. Still I feel that all the participants should have been at the same place during the dinner to exchange notes.
Had I been amongst the organisers or a tax official I would have definitely preferred a separate dinner. The saddest part of the seminar was the negligible number of lady tax consultants from either side.