The Supreme Court Judge Justice Qazi Faiz Isa’s wife Sarena Isa declined to take a tax liability of Rs. 35 million which is declared by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
While giving a response to an FBR letter she received, Isa’s said she was being “condemned unheard” and hence planned to file an appeal against the order.
Read more: Justice Isa’s wife seeks income tax details of Prime Minister and others
Serena Isa alleged in her letter that Prime Minister Imran Khan team which includes Law Minister Farogh Naseem, former attorney general Anwar Masoor Khan, the advisor on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar, Mohammad Ashfaq and Zulfiqar Ahmed from non-independent FBR as well as the complainant created a made-up case against her.
Sarena Isa said “Mr. Akbar set up and chaired a private organisation, the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU), and appointed a government servant, Ashfaq Ahmed, as its member. These gentlemen directed FBR’s Zulfiqar Ahmed to prepare a report, which he did, against my husband and me in a day”.
Justice Faiz Isa’s wife further stressed that Nausheen Amjad, the current FBR chairperson was substituted and a preferred officer appointed as an alternative. This was planned on the 4th of July, or immediately after the Supreme Court issued its order on June 19. “However, the new selected chairman was temporarily appointed for the duration of my case; something which had never happened before,” Mrs. Isa said.
The Faiz Isa’s wife also pointed out that “of all the commissioners in FBR the one selected by Mr. Imran Khan’s team was Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmed, a gentleman who had already given his opinion against my husband and me on May 10, 2019”.
Isa’s wife further talked about the tax liability that the officer did not have any lawful authority nor territorial jurisdiction in her case for the reason that her tax returns have always been filed in Karachi. Only an official from Karachi based department can look into her tax activities.
“Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmed has now come up with a 164-page order dated September 14, 2020 and created an artificial tax liability of over Rs.35 million. I don’t even know if he wrote the order himself,” according to her statement.
Quoting FBR order, she added in her statement that the officer even mentioned that “I refused the delivery of notice on June 25, 2020, the day my father died, and in order to humiliate my husband he also addressed the notice to Justice Isa’s official residence.”
She also revealed that a threat was also made to the tax consultant whom she communicated with. Another disclosure was also coming from Supreme Court Judge’s wife that deaths threat was also hurled towards her husband that were “unlikely to be a mere coincidence”.
It was the government duty to start an investigation and lodge an FIR against the culprit who swore to take the life of an active Supreme Court judge, however, it happened the other way as “I had to go myself to the police station with a written complaint,” she added.
As per her own statement, the police did nothing related to the complaint but instead forward the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) without her consent. However, the chief justice of Pakistan took notice and proceeded with the matter.
Mrs. Isa also writes in her letter that the FBR order was approved despite the fact that she had not been heard for once. “Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmed does not say whether he decides all cases without hearing the taxpayers or this special treatment is for a taxpayer who happens to be married to a judge, one who Mr. Imran Khan’s government is desperate to remove.”
Isa’s wife in her statement declared that she intends to lodge an appeal against the FBR recent order of tax liability as it snubbed all the material facts brought before him throughout the inquiry.
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