Bilawal averse to agencies’ role in drive against smuggling

PPP chairman says govt cannot broaden tax base by using FIA, NAB, FBR

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday questioned the rationale behind the government’s decision to involve intelligence agencies in its drive against smuggling and price hike, saying the institutions were supposed to fight terrorism.

The PPP chairman slammed the government’s economic policies and stressed the need for adopting confidence-building measures to increase the tax base and warned that the use of force against the traders would not be helpful in this regard.

Earlier this week, reports emerged that Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present their monitoring reports on a crackdown against smuggling in food items on a regular basis.

“Will our intelligence agencies fight terrorism or investigate financial polices of the incompetent government,” Bilawal posed a question, while addressing a press conference in Lahore. “The government cannot broaden the tax base by using the FIA, NAB, FBR,” he added.

The PPP chairman said that confidence-building measures were needed to bring more and more people into the tax net. “How could the government even think of documenting the economy in one day, this takes time.”

The PPP chairman warned that use of force would only shatter the confidence of businessmen. “Any person who is not in the tax net does not mean he is corrupt,” he emphasised.

He repeated his demand that the government re-negotiate the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying that the rulers agreed to all the conditions put forth by the lender, which had affected Pakistan’s economy.

“These people are ignorant to the common man’s problem. These people even do not know how to run an economy. They don’t know the capacity of their institutions that is why they have failed to meet their revised and reduced tax targets.”

He also demanded of the government to make arrangements for the return of Pakistanis stuck in China. He said that this government has not reached out to its people in China. However, he lauded the efforts of Chinese government in combating coronavirus.

When asked about the resignation of Anwar Mansoor Khan as the attorney general, Bilawal said that the PPP demands of the government to inform parliament whether it was spying on the Supreme Court judges.

“If not writing a letter constitutes contempt [of court] then what charges would apply to those spying on the honorable judges of the Supreme Court,” Bilawal said, apparently referring to disqualification of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani by the apex court in April 2012.

At the news conference, Bilawal’s attention was drawn towards Science and Technology Ministry Fawad Chaudhry’s letter to the National Assembly speaker, urging him to appoint a new opposition leader because of the long absence of Shehbaz Sharif.

Bilawal told the reporters that “we also think that the opposition leader should return to the house but the government should first consider changing the prime minister since he also does not attend the assembly session”.

Regarding the murder of a journalist in Sindh, he reiterated that the PPP government in the province was ready to form a judicial commission, if the family of the victim wanted.

He also offered the victim’s family that the government could depute a police officer of their choice for investigation.

“Be it the case of [PPP] MPA’s [Shahnaz Ansari] murder, the murder of a journalist or deteriorating law and order situation, the Sindh government could get the IG changed. And with a touch of sarcasm in his voice, he added: “If a cow had entered the Governor’s House, we would have had our IG changed.”