What’s govt’s answer?

In their two-part series of articles “The corrupt, tax cheats, ‘secrecy’ & RTI” carried by the newspaper recently, Huzaima Bukhari and Dr Ikramul Haq seem to have tried their level best to attract PTI government’s attention in particular to their argument. That the duo has been working harder to bring about a change in the bureaucratic mindset is a fact. They have argued, among other things, that “It is well-established that the role of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in curbing perpetual and growing corruption since its inception has been highly disappointing. Even after submission and re-submission of reports of “mega corruption cases” before the Supreme Court, NAB has failed to prosecute a single big fish. But the important question is how Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will proceed against those taken out of jurisdiction of NAB as majority has already availed Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Act, 2018, Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Act, 2018, Assets Declaration Ordinance, 2019 and Assets Declaration Act, 2019 as well as secured complete confidentiality?”

They have raised a highly informed question. The government is therefore required to come up with an equally plausible answer in order to address questions in relation to the amended NAB law and FBR’s capacity to deal with additional responsibilities.

Karachi Farooq Azhar