ISLAMABAD: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) and Adviser Incharge (AI) FTO to submit their comments on the appointments of advisers on contract basis in the FTO’s office.

The petition has been filed by a KPK-based taxpayer requesting the PHC to declare the contractual appointments of BS-21/BS-22 retired government servants in the FTO’s office as advisers/ consultants as illegal.

The petitioner requested the PHC to order cancellation of notifications regarding the appointment of advisers to the FTO, as contractual appointment of advisers is contrary to the law and judgments of the apex court.

Retired government officers appointed as advisers are also getting their pension/ privileges of BS-21/22 from the government and remunerations from the FTO out of the Federal Consolidated Fund, while their appointments are illegal, in contravention of the provisions of law, done in an obvious unlawful manner not following the codal and legal formalities and in complete derogation and violation of judgments of the apex court in 2014 SCMR 949, 2014 PLC (CS) 927, 1996 SCMR 1349 and 1993 SCMR 1287 Muhammad Yasin vs Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2012 SC 132), Muhammad Ashraf Tiwana vs Pakistan and others (2013 SCMR 1159), and Justice Qazi Faez Isa vs The President of Pakistan (PLD 2021 SC 1).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022