ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of the LTBA Public Interest Litigation Committee (LTBA-PILC) has expressed serious concern over the prolonged silence of the Performance Review Committee formed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to evaluate the performance of newly inducted contractual members of the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR), Pakistan.
When contacted Waheed Shahzad Butt, Chairman LTBA-PILC told this correspondence that the federal government constituted a four-member committee to assess the efficiency and conduct of private-sector members hired under the 2024 recruitment framework on market-based salaries of Rs2.6 million per month each. The committee, comprising retired Justices Athar Saeed and Tariq Abbasi, Shad M Khan and chartered accountant Ghazi Akhtar Khan, is to recommend whether each member should be retained, granted an extension, or removed for inefficiency or misconduct.
Nearly four months later, he said, the legal and tax community has seen no public indication of the committee’s progress, methodology or findings. “The silence is troubling. The committee was formed to bring accountability, but without visible action the exercise risks losing credibility,” Butt stated.
He recalled that the review was ordered after a taskforce report highlighted the poor performance of tax tribunals. The same report noted that pending cases have risen to around 68,000 despite the expanded tribunal strength. Tribunals are disposing of roughly 1,000 cases monthly, meaning five to six years to clear the backlog even if no fresh appeals are filed. Punjab accounts for nearly 76 per cent of the pendency, with Lahore carrying the largest share, directly affecting taxpayers and practitioners of this region.
Waheed further stressed the constitutional and legal importance of the ATIR, saying it is the final fact-finding authority in the hierarchy of fiscal statutes, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared it final on facts. Higher courts, he said, rely on its findings, so the quality, speed and integrity of its decisions shape the entire tax litigation system. “When the final fact-finding forum is slow or its performance is unchecked, every higher forum and every taxpayer suffers,” he said.
He urged the government and the committee to disclose the evaluation criteria and timeline publicly. He asked to complete the review without further delay, base decisions on measurable indicators such as disposal rates, ensuring quality of orders and adherence to procedure and conduct. He demanded to address the administrative and operational shortcomings that may be hampering the tribunals, and share the outcome with stakeholders, including the Bar associations.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026