Articles of the year 2014
Published on May 24th 2014
The newspapers of today carried the best news of the last decade. The Lahore High Court has issued notices to many leading politicians of all parties to declare and surrender the assets held by them abroad. I have earlier stated that this is a first step to their being brought into the tax net. For Instance all the obvious assets, the flats in Park Lane, the apartments in Edgware Road, all of these properties belonging to Politicians with the Pakistanis living in them and entertaining there--. Was Pakistani Income Tax paid on these properties? How can these politicians reign over us when they have not done their basic duty to the country which is : pay your taxes. In any country, these properties would be liable to confiscation, and a fine and a prison sentence. The Diamond necklace in the Bank vault was first denied by Benazir, but has now been acknowledged by Zardari, and claimed by him. What about the tax due to the State of Pakistan? These are all crimes against the State, and action should be taken.
These people should be punished for, firstly evading taxes, as most of the money is made illegally anyway, and secondly for moving the money out of Pakistan, taking the money out of the economy. The threat of confiscation should be very real, as the money has been robbed from the State, the State of Pakistan is suffering doubly and the Tax should be rendered unto the State that which belongs to it. The Sharif family was the first business house in Pakistan that had SROs issued for the benefit of the Sharif industries. Billions of Rupees were generated in this manner, and added to the coffers of the Sharifs. A day will come when all this will be accounted for. These incomes should be accounted for – and taxed. Nobody can, or should be allowed to evade the Taxman.
It would seem that Imran Khan is the only Pakistani politician that pays his taxes in Pakistan. In this position, he must attack the reluctance of the ‘others’ to come forward and pay their taxes. His success at creating a ‘charity’ culture which has been nurtured, and built into a multi billion dollar Industry.
Pakistan is recognized as the second largest per capita donors in the world. A truly remarkable statistic. When one considers the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian religious importance given to Charity, it is surprising that Pakistan, for long considered backward in the social graces- of which Charity is a major pillar. When the statistic showing Pakistan’s position in charity donor list, surprised many, including Pakistanis, who had till that time been considered too preoccupied with their own struggle against poverty, to pay attention to the misfortune of others. It was indeed an eye-opener for the Paki-bashers.
Pakistan has emerged as a producer of world class sportsmen, and recently showed their talent at singing by winning the Chote Ustad competition in India against a formidable crop of Indian youngsters. When one considers the disdain that the singers and musicians have to suffer, it was doubly surprising when their success over the Indians was viewed by millions of viewers. What is sad is their disappearing from the entertainment scene,after this high point.. Pakistan does not have a music industry large enough to absorb, or reward this talent. It is truly pathetic, that we can have ten TV anchors spouting their meaningless views, at Prime time. Surely the public should be offered this genre instead, and the vacuous talk shows should be relegated to the back burners, or the trash cans.
Only Cricket has the hearts and minds of the people, and has made fortunes for the players, ex players, and even the management of the PCB. The unseemly tussle for the Chairmanship between rivals for the post by people with no knowledge,or previous track record, shows the naked opportunism at play. The Government recognises this and uses this as a plum to bring the contenders into their orbit. And the shameless opportunists vie for their pound of flesh. Boosting their own sense of importance, to negotiate a more lucrative deal. The success of cricket should be spun off into other fields. We have the talent, and the market. It is a pity that the music talent of Pakistan of Pakistan has to be funded by the by the Indians--for peanuts of course. While halfwit talk-show hosts garner the lion's share of the funds in the Entertainment industry. The TV stations themselves are to blame for using their funds to promote the talk shows hosts into threatening the incumbents with public approbation or even into political wilderness.
It is shocking that this paucity of funds for such a surfeit of talent that leads Pakistani talent to seek Indian sponsorship. Where our talent is treated as the underclass.