SC seeks report over reimbursement of Rs 38.74m to OPF

Proceeding on a suo motu notice involving payment of compensation to affectees of the Iraq-Kuwait War, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday issued notices to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman to reply by March 1 whether Rs 38.74 million, deducted as income tax, were reimbursed to the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF). A two-member bench consisting of CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry and Justice Khilji Hussain heard the case. Earlier, the court had directed Habib Bank Limited (HBL) to submit the complete record indicating that how much amount of affectees’ compensation was deducted as service charges and what was the share and profit on the amount.
The court had ordered HBL after National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials had informed it that HBL withheld $892,206.9 of the affectees’ compensation amount as service charges. On Thursday, Lieutenant Colonel (r) Muhammad Niaz, case officer of NAB, told the court that on May 23, 2011 a request was made to HBL for giving documents pertaining to investment instructions of OPF for placing of funds in HBL etc. The court directed HBL’s counsel Anwar Mansoor to give the required documents to the NAB’s case officer. The court directed the OPF to give statements of accounts indicating the expenditure incurred while disbursing the amounts received from the UN for Kuwait affectees until today and the interest amount earned on the same with the markup rate, as per schedule.