TAX DILEMMA: I was abroad from June till mid-September, and when I tried to file my income tax return, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) website was inaccessible. Now the FBR has said there will be no extension in deadline. Since a large number of Pakistanis travel abroad during the summers, the FBR should show some flexibility in this regard.
P.S. Ahmad
Islamabad
ALARMING FACTOR: The recent victory in cantonment board elections across Punjab of candidates representing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and the margin of their victories is alarming. The same party did poorly in the rest of the country. If this trend continues, the next general elections might lead to a central government that may have no standing in three provinces just because Punjab alone holds 60 per cent of the National Assembly seats. There is a need to amend the Constitution to pre-empt such a possibility for the larger good of the country.
Dr Perwaiz Yousuf
Karachi
VACCINATION CERTIFICATES: I recently went to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) office to get my Covid vaccination card. I was stopped from entering the office as it was a women-only day, I was told, even when I could see men leaving the centre with their vaccination cards. When I pressed my case, a staff handed me a business card of a photocopy shop in Township Market from where, after paying four times the regular charges, anybody can get their vaccination card. Well done, Nadra!
Name withheld on request
Lahore
PETROL PRICES: The recent spike in the prices of petroleum products has compounded the financial woes of the salaried class which has fixed and limited income. One is finding it hard to make ends meet in these times of unprecedented inflation, especially when the private sector has considerably reduced salaries on the pretext of their own ‘financial issues’. Things are surely getting out of hand.
Shoukat Lohar
Jamshoro
Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2021
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.