–CJP orders action taken against PM Imran’s sister be made part of record after IRS commissioner rejects media reports that she availed amnesty
–Aleema claims she inherited foreign assets from maternal and paternal grandfathers as well as parents and ‘even earned myself’
LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Saturday informed the Supreme Court (SC) that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan did not benefit from a tax amnesty scheme on a flat in Dubai.
Appearing before a two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, Inland Revenue Service (IRS) Lahore Commissioner Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan submitted that media reports of Aleema Khan taking the amnesty were incorrect.
On Friday, the SC had asked the FBR to provide the court with Aleema’s tax details in a sealed envelope after a tax official claimed that the PM’s sister had benefited from the amnesty scheme and thus her tax information was confidential.
“You can provide the information to the court in a sealed envelope and we will take a look at it,” the chief justice had responded.
Presenting the sealed report to the CJP on Saturday, Dr Ishtiaq informed the court that Aleema was served a notice on February 8, 2018, for not declaring her Dubai flat in her tax returns. However, she had not responded to the notice because she was out of the country, he added.
Dr Ishtiaq said that according to Aleema, she had procured the flat through a bank loan, which was paid off through rent. Once the loan was repaid, he said, the flat was sold off.
The FBR commissioner said that whether or not Aleema incurred a loss on the sale was not the FBR’s concern.
The CJP ordered for action taken against the PM’s sister to be made part of the record, adding that the case will next be heard on Dec 6 in Islamabad.
The court has taken up a case against 44 ‘politically exposed individuals’ or their benamidars who possessed properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
ALEEMA SAYS INHERITED DUBAI PROPERTIES:
Meanwhile, talking to a private news channel on Friday night, Aleema said that she will reply to all allegations levelled against her in court.
“I am answerable to God and whenever the SC will summon me, I will present myself in front of it,” said the PM’s sister, who is currently touring Japan to raise funds for Namal College in Mianwali.
Talking about her property in UAE, Aleema said that she inherited those assets from her maternal and paternal grandfathers as well as her parents “and even earned myself”.
“I am being asked where I got the money from [to purchase property]. I inherited this money from my maternal and paternal grandfathers as well as my parents and even earned myself,” she said during the TV interview.
“My father was also accused of corruption and it was painful,” she said, calling allegations against her “hurtful”.
“My brother Imran Khan has never supported accumulation of money,” she said.
Aleema, who is also a member of the Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Hospital, also said that no board member has ever used the donations collected for the hospital for other purposes.
She has become a subject of controversy after opposition parties accused Imran Khan of giving an ‘NRO’ [National Reconciliation Ordinance] to his sister despite her owning an undeclared property in Dubai. The FBR had said that Aleema deposited half of her Dubai property’s total cost with tax authorities — 25 per cent of total estimated amount of her luxurious flat in taxes and 25pc fine.
Consequently, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif demanded a National Accountancy Bureau (NAB) probe into Aleema’s offshore assets.
“How did she [Aleema] manage to make properties worth billions in Dubai? Where did the money come from? She only paid a fine to keep the assets hidden, is this not an NRO?” he had asked in a conversation with journalists.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also demanded a probe into Aleema’s assets.
The PPP said that the payment of fine by the PM’s sister for the properties she owns in Dubai is, in fact, a case of confession of holding illegal assets as she hasn’t mentioned them in her tax record.
“As Aleema Khan has agreed to pay the Federal Board of Revenue 25pc tax as much fine for her Dubai properties, it means she has admitted the illegality in holding the assets,” the PPP deputy information secretary said in a statement on Friday.
MONEY SIPHONED OFF:
The list of politically exposed people was part of an annexure submitted to a three-judge SC bench comprising Justices Nisar, Faisal Arab and Ijazul Ahsan.
Taking suo motu notice of the matter, the apex court had observed that it appeared the money siphoned off abroad without payment of taxes through illegal channels represented either ill-gotten gains or kickbacks from public contracts.
“Such money creates gross disproportion, inequality and disparity in society, which warps economic activity and growth, and constitutes plunder and theft of national wealth,” it said.
In an earlier order, the court had also observed that it was common knowledge for years that a large number of Pakistani citizens were maintaining their bank accounts in other countries without disclosing these to the authorities competent under the laws of Pakistan or paying taxes on the same in accordance with the law.
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