The Non-taxpaying Lawmakers of Pakistan

Trendpk: Sixty-one percent of lawmakers in the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies do not pay any income-tax and of the remaining 39 percent, only 9 percent paid more than Rs100,000, disclosed a detailed examination of the documents that legislators submitted in 2008 to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The News has obtained copies of documents submitted by all Senators, MNAs and MPAs relating to their tax details, through an official request that was made some six months back. Of 1,170 legislators of the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies 707 have confirmed through their sworn affidavits to the Election Commission in 2008 having paid no income tax. Of the remaining 463, only 109 paid Rs100,000 or more.

Balochistan Assembly has had the biggest number of non-taxpayers (78 percent) followed by Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa 77 percent, Sindh Assembly 74 percent, Punjab Assembly 57 per cent, National Assembly 53 percent and Senate 48 percent.

Starting from the National Assembly, a House of 342 members that passes the finance bill each year deciding increase or decrease in taxes, there are as many as 181 MNAs who did not pay tax, that means 53 percent are tax evaders. Of the remaining 161 who said they did pay, only 43 (12 percent) were those who deposited Rs100,000 or more. Although Rs100,000 is not a big amount in terms of income tax, it sounds significant compared to others. It has already been reported that the leader of the house, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and his 25 cabinet members do not pay income tax.

In the Senate, which has 100 members, there are 48 Senators who, in their nomination papers, claimed having not paid a penny under the head of the income tax during the year they were elected to the Upper House. Of the remaining 52 only 19 Senators said they paid Rs100,000 or more.

The Punjab Assembly, the biggest provincial assembly with 371 members, has 209 MPAs (57 percent) who confirmed through their nomination papers that they paid no income tax. Nevertheless they had sufficient money to contest elections where the expenditure runs into millions of rupees. Of the remaining 43 percent (162 MPAs) who paid income tax, 34 members (9 percent) paid Rs100,000 or more. The News reported yesterday that Punjab Assembly’s leader of the House, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, had zero income tax return for the year 2008.

Sindh Assembly comprises 168 members and 123 (74 percent) paid no income tax in 2008, the year they contested the election. Of the remaining 45 MPAs (26 percent) who paid tax that year, only 5 percent (nine members) deposited Rs100,000 or more. Sindh Assembly’s leader of the House Qaim Ali Shah paid only Rs224 as tax!

Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assembly has 124 lawmakers and 77 percent (95 members) had not paid income tax in 2008. Of the remaining 29 members who deposited income tax, only three members crossed the figure of Rs100,000. KP’s Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti paid zero tax.

Balochistan Assembly is made up of 65 lawmakers including 51 (78 percent) who did not deposit a penny under the head of income tax. Of the remaining 14, only one member had his tax amount equivalent or above Rs100,000. Balochistan CM Aslam Raisani was among those who paid tax, a paltry Rs1,225.

Rahaman nominated for Golden Globe Awards

MUMBAI: A. R. Rahaman – the musical genious from India – has been nominated in the Best Original Score for Motion Picture category for the 2011 Golden Globe Awards. The nomination of Rahaman is for his work in Danny Boyle”s 127 hours.

The composer himself reacted to the nomination by saying “This is a blessing beyond words.”

The Chennai based composer is a double Oscar winner. The two Oscars had been awarded to him in 2009 for the music in Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire too had been Danny Boyle”s film. AR Rahaman had also won a Golden Globe in the same year for the same film.

The Golden Globe Awards is being hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the 68th time in January 2011.

Today, the Golden Globes recognize achievements in 25 categories; 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television.

Danny Boyle”s 127 Hours is nominated in two other categories – Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) and Best Screenplay (Motion Picture).

Justice Ejaz Chaudhry nominated as new Chief Justice of LHC

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission has unanimously nominated Justice Ejaz Chaudhry as new Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Trend Pk reported Saturday.

Justice Ejaz Chaudhry is the senior most judge in Lahore High Court.

Incumbent Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif will retire on December 8, 2010.

The Judicial Commission held its first formal meeting to finalize the nomination for the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry chaired the meeting.

According to a Trend Pk correspondent, all 11 members of the commission unanimously nominated Justice Ejaz for the slot. Trend Pk

Adv Yaseen Khans nomination for Judicial Commission disapproved

Supreme Court on Monday rejected the nomination of Advocate Yaseen Khan Babar by the Sindh Bar for inclusion in the Judicial Commission.
In a letter to the Advocate General Sindh, the SC said that the nominated lawyer was not a senior SC lawyer, and asked to notify another senior most lawyer in this regard. However, the letter also sought Yaseens experience certificate. It merits to mention that Sindh Bar Council (SBC) unanimously notified Yaseen Khan to represent Sindh in the JC. The SBC is likely to notify another lawyer in this respect.

Khalid Ranjha nominated as member of Judicial Commission

Pakistan Bar Council has nominated Khalid Ranjha as the member of Judicial Commisson after which the process of nomination has completed, Dunya News reported on Thursday.
Dr. Khalid Ranjha has been appointed as the member for a period of two years. Fakhar-Ud-Din G. Ibrahim was nominated by Hamid Khan group in opposition to Khalid Ranjha but was defeated. Khalid Ranjha got 11 votes whereas Fakhar-Ud-Din G. Ibrahim managed to get 7 votes. The meeting of the bar council was presided over by Vice Chairman Pakistan Bar Council Kazim Khan. Hamid Khan expressed his reservations on the nomination of Khalid Ranjha after the meeting concluded. He was of the view that an unbiased and neutral person should have been nominated for commission that would appoint new judges in the higher judiciary in future. Hamid Khan also said that Fakahr-Ud-Din G. Ibrahim was such candidate as was neutral.
On the other hand Dr. Khalid Ranjha thanked the members of the bar council for nominating him in a democratic manner.

President has discretionary power to appoint Chairman NAB: PM

Prime Minister Sayyed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said it is the discretionary power of the President to appoint chairman NAB. He said President assigned him the unpleasant task of negotiating with the opposition on the issue.
PM said that dissenting note of the opposition was sent to President. Justice (R) Mukhtar Junejo was nominated by the President but opposition rejected his nomination. Opposition also rejected the name of Justice (R) Deedar Hussain Shah. He said there was no discussion with Army Chief on the subject of change in cabinet. There is no role of Army Chief in appointing or firing ministers, however, changes could be made in the cabinet if needed, he said. PM further said that Employees Restoration Bill was passed unanimously.

Cameron Munter nominated new US ambassador to Pakistan

US President Barack Obama has announced the nomination of Dr. Cameron Munter as new US ambassador to Pakistan. His appointment, however, will be made after the approval of US Senate.
A statement issued by US Embassy in Pakistan said Cameron Munter has served in Germany, Poland, Czech Rebublic and Serbia on behalf of US. He was also the team lead of the firm team sent to Iraq for rehabilitation process in 2006.
Reigning US ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Peterson will be quitting office in October.

Speed calls PCB chief Butt aa ‘bafoon’

SYDNEY: Malcolm Speed, the former ICC chief executive, has slammed the boards that have blocked John Howard”s nomination as the next ICC vice-president.

During the ICC annual meeting in Singapore it was confirmed that Howard didn”t have enough support, while Australia and New Zealand have been asked to nominate another candidate Speed, who was CEO from 2001 until 2008, was scathing in his assessment of what had taken place to undermine Howard”s nomination, which itself was the subject of a compromise between Australia and New Zealand.

He said those who didn”t want Howard in the role are politically motivated.

“Howard has been rejected because his appointment would provide ICC with strong leadership that would thwart the ambitions of several current administrators to downgrade and devalue the role of the ICC,” Speed wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Howard would have stood in their path.

The role requires strength of character – a leader, diplomat, statesman and politician.

The ICC board is as political as any political party.

The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead who will do their bidding.” Speed added that Australia and New Zealand have previously accepted nominations despite reservations.

He said that they should decline to make another candidate available and instead pass the role onto Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are next in line on the rotation system, then refuse to vote themselves.

“In the meantime, they should be banging the table and making their displeasure widely known,” wrote Speed.

Cricket Australia”s chairman Jack Clarke and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart Alan Isaac said in a joint statement they were “deeply disappointed” after supplying “the best possible candidate”.

“We jointly nominated Mr Howard as he possesses significant leadership and administrative skills,” they said.

“We believe cricket needs to continue to seek excellence and dispassionate independence in the game”s global governance.

“We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination.

We remain convinced it is reasonable for his nomination to be supported by the ICC executive board and we are deeply disappointed by the position taken.”

He described Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, as a “buffoon” and cricket in Pakistan as “a basket case”.

He said that the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is a nominee of the prime minister, and added that two of the BCB cricket presidents during his time with the ICC, had ended up in jail when there was a change of government.

“The last BCB president I encountered was an army general. He did not know the name of the Bangladesh captain, the team’s next opponents and the capacity of the new ground that had just been inaugurated in Dhaka. I was too polite to ask him whether he had ever been to a cricket match,” Speed said.

“When these two countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) come forward with their joint nominee, Australia and New Zealand should politely refrain from voting.

Speed calls PCB chief Butt as ‘bafoon’

SYDNEY: Malcolm Speed, the former ICC chief executive, has slammed the boards that have blocked John Howard”s nomination as the next ICC vice-president.

During the ICC annual meeting in Singapore it was confirmed that Howard didn”t have enough support, while Australia and New Zealand have been asked to nominate another candidate Speed, who was CEO from 2001 until 2008, was scathing in his assessment of what had taken place to undermine Howard”s nomination, which itself was the subject of a compromise between Australia and New Zealand.

He said those who didn”t want Howard in the role are politically motivated.

“Howard has been rejected because his appointment would provide ICC with strong leadership that would thwart the ambitions of several current administrators to downgrade and devalue the role of the ICC,” Speed wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Howard would have stood in their path.

The role requires strength of character – a leader, diplomat, statesman and politician.

The ICC board is as political as any political party.

The countries that voted him down want a compliant figurehead who will do their bidding.” Speed added that Australia and New Zealand have previously accepted nominations despite reservations.

He said that they should decline to make another candidate available and instead pass the role onto Pakistan and Bangladesh, who are next in line on the rotation system, then refuse to vote themselves.

“In the meantime, they should be banging the table and making their displeasure widely known,” wrote Speed.

Cricket Australia”s chairman Jack Clarke and his New Zealand Cricket counterpart Alan Isaac said in a joint statement they were “deeply disappointed” after supplying “the best possible candidate”.

“We jointly nominated Mr Howard as he possesses significant leadership and administrative skills,” they said.

“We believe cricket needs to continue to seek excellence and dispassionate independence in the game”s global governance.

“We were delighted that the most senior world figure ever considered for this role agreed to accept the nomination.

We remain convinced it is reasonable for his nomination to be supported by the ICC executive board and we are deeply disappointed by the position taken.”

He described Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, as a “buffoon” and cricket in Pakistan as “a basket case”.

He said that the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board is a nominee of the prime minister, and added that two of the BCB cricket presidents during his time with the ICC, had ended up in jail when there was a change of government.

“The last BCB president I encountered was an army general. He did not know the name of the Bangladesh captain, the team’s next opponents and the capacity of the new ground that had just been inaugurated in Dhaka. I was too polite to ask him whether he had ever been to a cricket match,” Speed said.

“When these two countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) come forward with their joint nominee, Australia and New Zealand should politely refrain from voting.

India’s Pawar takes over as ICC president

SINGAPORE: Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sharad Pawar took over as International Cricket Council (ICC) president, becoming the second Indian, after Jagmohan Dalmiya, to occupy the top post.

The ICC annual conference week culminated with Pawar taking over as the seventh ICC President, succeeding Englishman David Morgan, who concludes his two-year term at the end of the week.

Dalmiya was the first Indian to be elected for the post, in 1997.

The annual conference week started with the Chief Executives` Committee (CEC) meeting and the ICC Executive Board discussing the nomination of former Australian Prime Minister John Howard for the role of ICC Vice-President.

The main agenda for the CEC meeting was the subject of the Future Tours Programme 2012-20, including possibility of having ICC Test and ODI leagues.

Meanwhile, Former Australia Prime Minister John Howard has said that he will not step aside as the nominee for the International Cricket Council’s vice-presidency despite being snubbed by the body on Wednesday.

Howard said he had been given no indication as to why his candidacy was blocked by a reported six of the 10 major cricketing nations at the ICC`s meeting in Singapore.

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