Articles of the year 2014
Published on July 15th 2014
It was heartwarming to read that the Lahore High Court has issued notices to many leading politicians of all parties, to list their assets held abroad. This may be the first step to bringing them into the tax net.
How can politicians rule us when they have not fulfilled their basic duty of paying taxes? In any country, these properties would be confiscated, and the owners fined and sent to prison. These politicians should be punished severely to set a precedent for anyone to refrain from evading taxes in the future. The Sharif family was the first business in Pakistan that had SROs issued for the benefit of their industries, and billions of rupees were generated and added to their coffers. All incomes should be accounted for and taxed. Nobody can, or should be allowed to evade the Taxman.
Pakistan is recognized as the second largest per capita donor in the world. A truly remarkable statistic. Pakistan’s position in the charity donor list surprised many, including Pakistanis, who had, until that time, been considered too preoccupied with their own struggle against poverty, to pay attention to the misfortune of others.