Balochistan MPAs highest income tax payers

ISLAMABAD: The members of the Balochistan Assembly are the highest income tax payers, having shelled out more than one million rupees plus each, compared to their counterparts in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the federal lawmakers, according to the tax directory released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

 

Mir Mammal belonging to the Balochistan National Party (BNP) was the highest income tax payer among the provincial legislators of Balochistan as he contributed Rs8,090,508. However, in contrast with these praiseworthy significant tax payments, Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti, elected from PB-24 Dera Bugti, who has earned a distinction for his blunt talk against the terrorists, figures among the tax defaults or non-filers, as the tax directory doesn’t contain his name.

Of the total 65 Balochistan lawmakers, fifty-five were shown in the directory as having paid income tax, meaning they are tax return filers. Among them, there were only four members who paid less than one million rupees income tax. They included Nasrullah Khan Barech of Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) (Rs956,675); Mir Jan Muhammad Jamali of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) (Rs985,564); Kishwar Ahmed (Rs917,048) and Ruqia Saeed Hashmi (Rs948,150).

Balochistan, otherwise a backward area where it is alleged that law is not generally followed mostly by those who are in power and where the literacy rate is also very low, has surpassed all other provinces in terms of paying significant income tax as far as their legislators are concerned.

A hurried reading of the tax paid by other federal and provincial lawmakers shows that there are many legislators, who contributed very paltry amount to the national exchequer. In some cases, even the generally known wealthy figures have not paid what was due. But this is not the case in Balochistan.

Similarly, there is a sizable number of federal legislators of other areas, who paid a very small amount as income tax. According to the tax directory, KP Minister Shah Farman has a share of only Rs10,000 in the income tax collected by the FBR.

Senators Jehan Zeb Jamaldini paid just Rs12,058; Mufti Abdul Sattar Rs17,331; Zafarullah Khan Dhandla Rs17,331; Saleem Zia Rs15,720; Engineer Usman Tarrakai Rs14,331; Sahibzada Faizul Hassan Rs17,331; Asghar Ali Shah Rs5,729; and Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli Rs9,407.

Punjab Assembly members Asif Mehmood paid only Rs4,200; Sardar Bahadar Maikan Rs4,145; Malik Javed Iqbal Awan Rs920; Imtiaz Ahmad Lali Rs4,200; Mian Muhammad Azam Rs1,100; Malik Fiaz Ahmad Awan Rs5,200; Chaudhry Shabbir Ahmed Rs6,764; Syed Tariq Yaqob Rs4,200 and Chaudhry Akhtar Abbas Bosal Rs5,620.

If the lifestyles of a predominant majority of the federal and provincial legislators are taken into consideration, their income tax payments would certainly look extremely trivial.

Apart from Sarfraz Bugti, there are only nine members of the Balochistan assembly, who are tax defaulters. A majority of them belongs to the PML-N. They are Rahat Jamali, elected from PB-26 Jaffarabad, Mir Izhar Hussain Khoso, elected from PB-27 Jaffarabad, Meer Mohammad Asim Kurd Geelo, elected from PS 29 Naseerabad, Amanullah, elected from PB-39 Chagai and Akber Askaani, elected from PB-50 Kech. Other tax defaulters are Abdullah Abdul Majeed Khan of PMAP, elected from PB-13 Killa and Mir Khalid Hamayoon of the National Party, elected from PB-36 Kalat.