Over two dozen MNAs non-filers of IT returns

ISLAMABAD: At least 3 federal ministers and 5 prominent leaders of different political parties are included in more than two dozens of members of the National Assembly (MNAs) who have not paid any tax as they are ‘non-filers’ of annual returns, according to the tax directory released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The key figures are senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Dr Arif Alvi and Murad Saeed, Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stalwart Dr Fazal Chaudhry and Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader and Council of Islamic Ideology Chairman Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani.
The cabinet members include Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Mohammad Yousaf, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir, National Food Security and Research Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan.
When approached for comments, FBR Spokesman Shahid Asad told The News that it was clear that these MPs had not submitted their tax returns and that was why their names did not appear in the tax directory. “They are non-filers,” he said.
The tax directory was tabulated from the returns filed manually and electronically till April 10, 2015.The FBR said there may be some discrepancies at the level of filing or date entry. It said a considerable number of manually filed returns could not be entered into the system despite best efforts due to missing identifiers on them.
The agency asked the taxpayers to review their returns data and if there is any discrepancy in their published data or the returns is not available in the directory, it may be brought to its notice. Based on this, the final version of the tax directory will be published on April 30. Till that date, the present tax directory may be treated as provisional edition.Apart from nearly 29 non-filers, there are at least 15 senators and 10 MNAs, who did not pay even a single penny as tax, according to the directory.
PML-N’s non-filers are Sar Zamin Khan, elected from NA-25 Kohistan; Shahabuddin Khan, elected from NA-44 tribal area; Shafqat Hayat, elected from NA-68 Sargodha; Nisar Ahmad Jatt, elected from NA-81 Faisalabad; Sahibzada Nazir Sultan, elected from NA-96 Jhang; Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, elected from NA-106 Gujrat; Waheed Alam Khan, elected from NA-127 Lahore; Dr Shezra Kharal, elected from NA-137 Nankana Sahib; Nadeem Abbas Rebaira, elected from NA-151 Okara; Syed Javed Ali Shah, elected from NA-152 Multan; Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry, elected from NA-169 Vehari; Sahibzada Faizul Hassan, elected from NA-181 Layyah; and Alam Dad Laleka, elected from NA-189 Bahawalnagar.
The PTI’s non-filers include Dr Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon, elected from NA-17 Abbottabad; Eng Dawar Kundi, elected from NA-25 Dera Ismail Khan-cum-Tank; and Col (retd) Amirullah Marwat, elected from NA-27 Lakki Marwat.
PPP’s non-filers are Ghulam Rabbani Khar, elected from NA-177 Muzaffargarh and Shahjahan Baloch, elected from NA-248 Karachi.Salman Baloch of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), elected from 239 Karachi, is also a non-filer and so is independent Jamshed Dasti, elected from NA-178 Muzaffargarah.
Senior PML-N leader Zafar Iqbal Jhagra is included among those paid no tax. His other party colleagues in the same cateotry are Mir Naimatullah Zehri, Javed Abbasi, Saleem Zia and Shahbaz Khan Durrani.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq is also in the same set and so are PTI’s Samina Abid and John Kenneth Williams. All the three Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party senators Gul Bashra, Usman Kakar and Sardar Mohammad Azam paid no tax. So are Awami National Party’s Sitara Ayaz, JUI-F Maulana Ataur Rehman, MQM’s Nighat Mirza and tribal area Senator Hilalur Rehman.