ISLAMABAD: Sarina Isa, the wife of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, complained that Zulfiqar Ahmed, Commissioner Inland Revenue AEOI Zone Islamabad, passed an order against her without hearing, and condemned her unheard. Sarina Isa on Friday issued a statement in response to a 164-page order dated 14th September, 2020, creating an "artificial" tax liability of over Rs35 million.
She stated that Zulfiqar Ahmed did not say, in order, whether he decides all cases without hearing the taxpayer or this special treatment is for a taxpayer who is married to a judge of the Supreme Court, "to whom Prime Minister Imran Khan's government is desperate to remove."
"In this order he says that I "Refused Delivery" of his notice sent on 25th June, 2020, the day my father died. He then got his notices marked "Confidential" pasted, after having taken them out of envelopes, on the outer gate of my husband's official residence. If there was a purpose other than to humiliate my husband and me it has not been revealed, nor that this is the method of sending notices by FBR," she wrote.
Sarina Isa stated that attempts were made to intimidate the tax consultant whom she had contacted to help her to respond to the notices. "Zulfiqar Ahmed did not in a single one of his notices provide me the stipulated minimum 15 days to respond. Yet I responded to each one of the notices; 6 pages on 9th July, 2020, 10 pages on 21 July, 2020, 19 pages on 10th August, 2020, and 20 pages on 28th August, 2020."
"I was not permitted to mourn my father. I wonder if the plan to send as many as 8 notices to me was to trip me up so I was not able to respond and use this as a pretext to pass an order against me."
She stated that Zulfiqar Ahmed in his notices referred to documents and information, which she repeatedly requested, was not provided, but this did not prevent its use against her. The voluminous order too does not attach these documents.
She wrote that Zulfiqar Ahmed's "order is a piece of fiction and I shall be filing an appeal against it. A fiction in which my agricultural land earnings were disregarded; a fiction in which my salary paid by the Karachi American School since the year 1982 is also disregarded (taxable salary for 2007 to 2012 (5 years) is only considered); a fiction in which the sale proceeds and profits earned from the sale of two properties in Clifton, Karachi have been disregarded. Despite a life-time of working and earning, I cannot buy properties equivalent in value to a house built on a 500 square yards plot."
"Was this extraordinary treatment meted out to me because I had the audacity to ask for the copies of the tax returns of public office holders, including those of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Special Assistant to PM on Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar, Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem and Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed FBR Member Inland Revenue Operations," she stated.
"These gentlemen illegally accessed and publicly disclosed my tax returns. Unlike them I have never held public office or was it because I happen to be married to a judge who will brook no pressure. Or is it because of the misogynist attitude that a woman cannot support herself. Or does it hurt them that even now (when I am not working) I probably pay more income tax than Imran Khan and his very Special Assistants combined," Sarina Isa said.
She mentioned that of all the commissioners in FBR the one selected by Imran Khan's team was Mr Zulfiqar Ahmed, "a gentleman who had already given his opinion against my husband and me on 10th May, 2019."
She added: "Zulfiqar Ahmed also did not have legal jurisdiction nor territorial jurisdiction. My returns have always been filed at Karachi, therefore, only a Karachi-based commissioner could look into my tax affairs."
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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