Official documents have revealed that Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Shoaib Suddle blatantly lied to media in denying any move of his tenure’s extension as had been pointed out by Malik Riaz.
Property tycoon Riaz while appearing before the one-man Suddle Commission had not only denied to accept its legitimacy but also claimed that “a deal was underway for extension in Suddle’s tenure as FTO”. Supreme Court had entrusted Suddle, a former PSP, in a single-member commission to investigate Riaz’s graft and extortion allegations against Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Pakistan Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad.
Responding to Riaz’s November 13 claim of FTO’s tenure extension, Suddle addressed a press conference on November 14 to deny any such move.
“No summary had been moved to federal cabinet for extension of my four-year tenure as FTO ending in June next year,” Suddle was quoted as saying during the press conference.
To the contrary a copy of the federal cabinet’s November 14 meeting agenda prepared on November 12 clearly shows inclusion of amendments in the establishment of the office of Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance 2000. The agenda item No. six of the Law and Justice Division seeks approval for amendment in FTO Ordinance and therein, among other things, to increase the FTO tenure from four to five years. As soon as Riaz leaked this move to media on November 13, the vested stakeholders that were earlier insisting for the item to be on the agenda of the cabinet requested its withdrawal. Consequently, the law division wrote an office memorandum to the cabinet division and requested for the withdrawal of item No. six namely “Amendments to the FTO Ordinance”.
Resultantly, the cabinet division had to prepare a new agenda for the November 14 meeting and the re-circulated notification on November 13 did not include the law division’s item on amendments to the FTO Ordinance.
The Bill to amend the establishment of the FTO Ordinance 2000, was pursuing amendment in section 4 (subsection 1) whereby for the word “four” the word “five” would be substituted besides the following proviso; “Provided that notwithstanding the expiration of his term, the Federal Tax Ombudsman shall continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office.”
Through these proposed amendments, Suddle as FTO was not only seeking a longer tenure but also more discretionary powers to “prescribe” salaries and terms and conditions of his staff as against previous structures corresponding to government pay scales.
Moreover the Bill also provided for relaxation in restrictions to hold public office before expiry of two years after the end of tenure as FTO.
Suddle lied about denying extension move, reveal documents
