| 10 May 2004 | Monday | 19 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Tax system loopholes
Banning panchayats
Friday's bomb attack in a Karachi mosque has been devastating in more ways than one, and its ramifications will continue to be felt. The city remained restive over the weekend.
We share the sense of loss and grief of the bereaved families and the pain of the injured. It will not be easy to comfort them. For no fault of theirs, they became victims of the criminal act of perverted minds for whom human life carries no value at all.
But equally devastating is the sense of shock, anger and cynicism that the public feels in the wake of every such horrendous incident when it takes place. With the frequency of acts of terrorism on the rise - this bomb blast was the fourth in five days in Pakistan - one can imagine how the psyche of the nation is being ravaged.
On every such occasion, the government leaders have been loud in their promises to trace out the culprits, mete out exemplary punishment to them and root out terrorism. But now it is plain that the authorities have lost all credibility and the people view their statements as no more than empty rhetoric.
Although the attack is generally believed to have been of a sectarian nature, it has other connotations as well. Since no one has claimed responsibility as has been the wont in Pakistan, the motives behind this and similar other crimes may never come to be known.
With all kinds of conjectures being made, one can only presume that the main objective of the terrorists is to destabilize the country, drive fear and panic into people's minds, create economic uncertainty and instil a sense of insecurity among the minorities.
Such conditions present the government in a poor light because they belie its claims to be working to make the country safe and secure for its citizens as well as for foreign investors. It is therefore surprising why the government is not doing enough to end the violence which is gnawing away at the roots of society.
The simple fact is that religious extremism and militancy have been growing unchecked and posing a serious threat to peace and stability in the country since General Ziaul Haq used religion to legitimize his rule.
That made it possible for some religious parties with obscurantist agendas to strike root and flourish. The present government has unfortunately not done enough to arrest this trend. Its policy has been that of one step forward and two back.
After announcing stiff measures against the jihadi outfits - several of them supposedly banned - the government has backtracked and allowed them to continue with their criminal activities.
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the police are failing in their duty of keeping track of elements who make bombs and kill worshippers in mosques. The fact is that the enforcement of law and order, prevention and control of crime, and checking violence and terror require as much political will and commitment as they call for policing skills.
By mixing politics with religious extremism, the government has only weakened its hand. The problem lies in the dichotomy of chasing terrorists at the behest of the Americans but not doing enough to protect our own citizens praying in a mosque or doctors going to attend to their patients.
Tax system loopholes
The chairman of the Central Board of Revenue admitted at a seminar in Karachi last week that there were gaps and loopholes in the tax system that needed to be filled.
This can only be done if the CBR is in a position to do so. As a first step, the government should introduce legislation to make the CBR autonomous. Its management should have the power to hire, fire and transfer its staff and formulate its own policies.
In this regard, a law for granting autonomy to the CBR so that not only reforms are carried out but their continuity is also ensured deserves due consideration. In this, the emphasis in reforming the organization should take precedence over achieving targeted collection figures.
It is only then that the gaps and loopholes in the tax system can be plugged. An autonomous CBR should be given the responsibility to increase the number of taxpayers in the country from the present 1.7 million to three million within a reasonable period of time.
Over the past few years, the present government has used a policy of carrot and stick but this has not yielded the desired results. On the one hand, tax rates have been reduced and rationalized, with taxpayers being given a variety of options for payment as well as incentives.
On the other hand, a massive drive was launched a few years ago to unearth tax evasion and theft with exemplary fines and punishment for those found guilty. Neither of these approaches proved effective in widening the tax base or increasing collections from direct taxes significantly.
What is needed instead is an integrated approach towards making the CBR more efficient as well as introducing laws that would allow the organization to sustain the proposed reforms.
If this is not done and the tax base remains as narrow as at present, there is a danger that economic progress will be retarded and the government would have to resort to heavy borrowings to meet its budgetary needs as was done in the past.
Banning panchayats
Yet again, a panchayat in southern Punjab has gone ahead and meted out barbaric punishment in the form of ordering the rape of two women, allegedly by a landlord who felt he had been humiliated by the women's family.
While some of the panchayat members have been arrested and are now claiming that they ordered no such thing, the fact is that firm steps need to be taken to weed out this system of tribal justice, which holds particular sway in the rural hinterland.
The members of this panchayat claim that they did not have any such punishment in mind and that the girls had "just" been beaten up to avenge the other family's humiliation.
The Supreme Court needs to take notice of the growing incidence of cases with a parallel system of adjudication doling out all kinds of gruesome and misogynist punishments to the 'guilty'.
The recent judgment of the Sindh High Court banning jirgas and their primitive system of justice needs to be followed all over the country so that at least a legal prohibition is placed on bodies which seek to take the law into their own hands.
However, mere passage of a law or a prohibition decreed by a superior court cannot be expected to do away with a custom deeply embedded in society. It is necessary for more enlightened people to come forward and protest against all such forms of arbitration.
It also needs to be realized that if our courts did not suffer from a massive backlog of cases, if pursuing a civil or criminal case was affordable and if judgments were delivered within a reasonable time, litigants, especially from the impoverished and rural backwaters, would not go running to panchayats or jirgas.
So, while a nationwide ban on panchayats and jirgas is imperative, it is important to ensure speedy and inexpensive justice to people under the country's judicial system.