The court ordered that the tax would continue to be deducted, but deposited in a separate account titled ‘Suspension Account’ till further orders.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah issued the order on a writ petition filed by four employees of Allied Bank Limited, challenging the deduction of IDPT from the income of corporate employees who were earning more than Rs1 million a year.

He also issued notices to Attorney General of Pakistan and Board of Revenue for Dec 22.

Petitioners Zegham Mansoor and others pleaded before the court that the government had issued a notification for fiscal year 2008-09 saying that five per cent of income tax would be charged as IDPT from all those employees of corporate sectors with annual income of Rs1 million or more.

They said that the government had issued another notification for the fiscal year 2009-10, explaining that 30 per cent of all bonuses given to such employees would also be deducted as IDPT.

The petitioners said that the provisions were tantamount to discrimination and contrary to constitutional guarantees.

They prayed to the court to set aside the impugned notifications and restrain the government from deducting IDPT from their income.