ISLAMABAD: Sadiq Sanjrani, Senate Chairman, stressed the supremacy of parliament and urged that all assets of bureaucrats employed by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) be made public, leaving no option for keeping it as hidden information.
He stated this during question hours in the senate. He said nothing could escape Parliament’s scrutiny. Senator Saifullah Sarwar Khan Nayazee asked a question, and State Minister for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan responded that the current law forbids the disclosure of FBR employees’ assets. He emphasized that Parliament has the power to remove specific law provisions.
Shahadat disclosed that FBR asked the Ministry of Law and Justice for advice on how to share declarations of assets and liabilities of FBR officers to acquire a policy decision. However, the Ministry of Law and Justice prohibited FBR from giving any third-party access to the declarations that individuals provided to them.
Sen. Rana Maqbool emphasized the need for amending pertinent laws to ensure transparent disclosure of FBR assets because nothing should be kept a secret from the legislature.
Shahadat Awan responded to Bahramand Khan Tangi’s query by saying that three clothes and shoe stores had been closed for the past five years due to their involvement in creating fake invoices and hiding tax collected from customs. In particular, two outlets were closed in the fiscal year 2022–2023 and one in 2021–2022. One million rupees in total were successfully recovered from these shops. —APP
