WE are a strange nation! According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Pakistanis are paying more than one per cent of the country’s GDP in charities. The country is ahead in the line of developed countries in giving charities. The UK gives 1.3pc of its GDP to charities. We are giving about twice what India gives relative to her GDP.

However, when it comes to our compulsory contribution we are far behind even among developing countries. Our tax to GDP ratio is around 11pc and that of the UK and Canada is well above 30 per cent. The research goes on to state that tax evasion in Pakistan ranges between Rs302 billion and Rs342 billion.

No wonder our prime minister and chief justice are going about collecting funds to build dams. My point: if the people were not in the habit of evading taxes we could have already built the dam.

Naeem ur Rehman
Peshawar

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018