KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has expressed displeasure over deductions of around Rs6 billion, including recent deduction of Rs125 million, by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from the account of the Sindh government.

“This is unacceptable as our legal team is pursuing all FBR matters before appeals commissioner in the Appellate Tribunal and before the Federal Tax Ombudsman. The recovery must be taken seriously as the amount is meant only for the welfare of the people of Sindh,” he added.

The chief minister was presiding over a joint meeting of the Excise and Taxation Department and Sindh Revenue Board which was attended by Excise Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Excise and Taxation secretary Haleem Shaikh, DG Excise Shoaib Siddiqui, Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) chairman Khalid Mahmood, adviser to the SRB Mushtaq Kazmi and others.

The meeting was told that the FBR Karachi had sent notices claiming withholding tax worth Rs3bn of previous years starting from 2012.

The secretary excise and taxation said he was going to reply to them and had obtained a 45-day stay from the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue of Pakistan, Karachi.

The chief minister said, “Looking at the way they have behaved so far, it can be presumed that nothing positive will come out of it.”

Catholic University

Murad Ali Shah held a meeting with a delegation of the Catholic community, led by Archbishop of Karachi Joseph Coutts.

Other members of the delegation included vicar general archbishop of Karachi Father Saleh Diego, principal of St Patrick’s Cathedral Mario Rodrigues and principal of St Jude’s School Afzal Jacob.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro, former special assistant to CM Naveed Anthony, PPP MPA Saeed Ghani and principal secretary to CM Sohail Rajput also attended the meeting.

Recalling the contribution of the Catholic Board, the chief minister vowed to provide them a piece of land at the Education City for establishment of the Catholic University.

“You deserve to have a university at the Education City located on the link road connecting the National Highway with the Superhighway,” he said.

The delegation told the chief minister that the YMCA ground belonged to them but some influential persons making an illegal agreement with the employee of the ground had grabbed it.

“We have filed a case and presently nazir of the high court looks after it,” they said and urged the chief minister to resolve the issue.

The delegation also told the minister that they needed another space to establish a graveyard as the Christian cemetery (Gora Qabristan) has reached its maximum capacity.

The chief minister assured them of government’s complete support.

Recruitment on merit

Murad Ali Shah has directed all provincial departments to fill their vacancies only on merit.

“We have recruited 9,000 policemen on merit and appointed over 5,000 doctors through the Sindh Public Service Commission,” he said.

A statement issued by the spokesman for the CM House on Wednesday pointed out that the provincial government had conducted a high-level inquiry into bogus recruitments in the education department and terminated services of those appointed illegally.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2017