LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday restrained FBR from taking coercive measures against singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for the recovery of income tax.

Though a writ petition, the singer challenged freezing of his bank accounts by the FBR on alleged default of income tax.

Singer’s counsel Shafiq Ahmad argued before the court that his client had been regularly paying income tax. However, he said, the FBR illegally froze his bank accounts accusing him of evading tax for year 2015-16. He said his client had no secret bank account. The lawyer asked the court to restrain the FBR from recovering the alleged defaulted amount of income tax from the petitioner and also order it to de-freeze his accounts.

Justice Shahid Jamil Khan disposed of the petition and directed the petitioner to first avail remedy in the law by filing an appeal before the FBR.

However, the judge restrained the FBR from taking coercive measures against the petitioner till decision of his appeal.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2017