Islamabad:
A member of the Constitutional Banc of the Supreme Court (CB) questioned the plan of the government of reconstruction of the areas affected by the Zarb-E-Azb operation, initiated in 2014 to eliminate terrorist homes in what is now the district of northern Waziristan.
A CB of five members led by Judge Amicin Khan resumed on Tuesday hearing a series of petitions deposited against the taxation of a super tax in 2015 for the rehabilitation of the people moved internally by the military operation.
During the hearing, judge Jamal Khan Mandokhail asked government questions for the rehabilitation of the areas affected by the operation.
“Was any PC-1 [Project Concept-1] Prepared for the resettlement of affected areas? Has an estimate been made for the rehabilitation of the affected regions? He also asked whether a tax on the services could be imposed by a money bill.
One of the lawyers for companies that challenged the tax, Makhdomo Ali Khan, argued that the government had initially applied the super tax as a punctual measure through the 2015 monetary bill.
“However, its implementation continued from 2015 to 2022. The government’s initial estimate was to receive 80 billion rupees. It is not clear how much income was really generated by the Super Levy tax,” he added.
He said the government had already received income tax on profits and to avoid double taxation, it was called “super taxes”. He argued that social well-being is now a provincial subject and that it was not a great tax but simply another tax.
Judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar asked if the tax on the super-pronouncement had been imposed for a single year. The company’s lawyer replied that it was initially implemented for a year.
Judge Mandokhail asked if there was a file of the total amount collected under the super tax. Judge Mazhar pointed out that the super tax had been imposed once on a specific goal and wondered if it would continue indefinitely.
Makhdomer Ali Khan argued that the rehabilitation of the areas affected by the military operation was a local and provincial affair. The audience will resume today at 9:30 am.
