Revoking privacy

The President has signed an ordinance effectively revoking privacy protections within the Income Tax Ordinance of 2001 (ITO), and we are all worse off for it. Simply put, the new ordinance strikes language from the ITO that imposed penalties on officials of the FBR and other bodies if they shared some data except as allowed by law. The new ordinance also allows the FBR to cancel cellphone or electricity connections for non-filers, which is also a slippery slope, although the inclusion of a 35% tax on the bills of several self-employed individuals who are non-filers seems a bit more practical.

The new law is also another example of the incumbent government bypassing parliament to rule by decree. Debate on these changes would have exposed how flawed the decision is. In fact, the government did not even discuss the ordinance in a full cabinet meeting, suggesting that even the prime minister’s inner circle was not on board.

It is an unfortunate truth that the Government of Pakistan, no matter who is at the helm, has no respect for citizens’ privacy. For decades, the Pakistani state has been actively violating democratic norms by ensuring that the citizens know nothing about their government, while the government knows everything about them. That is not to say that there should be bars on interagency cooperation. Warrants and formal requests with paper trails would be welcome. Unfortunately, that would require baboos and others to act professionally and not abuse their offices by using such interagency data for illegal acts. It would also allow people who feel they are being harassed by tax authorities, NAB, or other state bodies to take them to court, which is unacceptable to the influential folks who wantonly abuse their offices.

Reports suggest that this law was heavily pushed by NAB, which wants to open up decades-old closed cases and go on fishing expeditions. This is also a problem because NAB places the burden of proof on the accused rather than the accuser. Lacking paper trails from 20 years ago is not in itself a crime, but under the current system, innocent people can be made to look like criminals.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2021.

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