Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will gladly vouch for these powers, since he has
been at both the receiving and giving ends of the CBR.
CBR has the reputation of being corrupt, besides being one of the most
politicized departments of Govt of Pakistan. From the office of chairman to
middle and lower ranks, appointments are made in CBR on political and financial
considerations. One frequently comes accross people in Islamabad with offers of
money for appointments or postings in departments under the jurisdiction of
CBR. The amount that these people offer. even for a clerical job in customs,
income tax or other subordinate departments gives a measure of corruption and
graft in CBR.
It is thus, not mere coincidence that the chairman of CBR has invariably been the
first to go with each change of govt since 1988. Benazir Bhutto assumed power
in the last week of December 1988 and Ghulam Yazdani Khan was appointed
the new chairman CBR on January 22, 1989. He was removed on August 10,
1990 within 5 days of Bhutto's dismissal and was later arrested by Nawaz Sharif
govt, ostebsibly on charges of smuggling. But his real crime was initiating
investigations into the allegations of tax evasion by House of Ittefaq.
Nawaz Sharif waited for eight months to bring Sajjad Hassan as CBR chairman
who was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq on April 8, 1993, two days after
Nawaz Sharif was dismissed. Kazi Aleem Ullah was appointed the new chairman
on May 3, 1993 who was replaced on July 17, 1993 by a PPP nominee Mobin
Ahsan who, in turn could survive only a week because of reinstatement of Nawaz
Sharif govt by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The successive governments and senior bureaucats have always been
conscious of the corruption plaguing CBR and Kazi Aleem Ullah, in a letter on
May 8, 1993 to members and senior officials of CBR said that " it was extremely
unfortunate that both customs and incom tax services which are the backbone of
federal tax administration enjoy a very poor reputation in public eye. So much so
that these departments are always quoted, in private as well as in public, as
corrupt departments".
Very few people know that according to Federal Service Census Report, 1993,
CBR presently housed in an unassuming building on the Constitution Avenue in
Islamabad is the second biggest employer, among all the federal govt
departments after Pakistan Railways, accounting for 12% of the total stregth of
Federal Employees estimated at 1,75,189.
Politics of SROs
The 1973 constitution had clearly provided that " impostion, abolition, remissions,
alteration or regulation of any tax" would fall in the jurisdiction of Finance Bill to
be passed by the National Assembly. But during the Zia ul Haq era when there
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