February 03, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 24, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 2: A division bench of the Lahore High Court is set to hear 52 identical petitions by the Sharifs and their business concerns challenging assessment of their income tax on Monday (tomorrow).

The counsel for the Sharif family, Tariq Aziz, said the income tax department had assessed the liability of the Ittefaq Group and its directors at Rs20 million, but it was raised to Rs400 million during the first tenure of the Benazir Bhutto government. He said the tax was reduced to Rs20 million during the first Nawaz Sharif government, but was raised to Rs650 million during Benazir’s second term.

The counsel said their argument hinged on the fact that the income tax tribunal, which rejected their clients’ appeal against the tax assessment, could not have condoned an inordinate delay in the filing of the appeal by the government.

He said the Benazir government had filed an appeal with a tribunal when the then income tax commissioner had refused to endorse the tax being sought from the Sharifs.