LHC asks for list of Mian Sharif’s heirs

LHC hears a Sharif family appeal against tax evasion notices.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday heard a Sharif family appeal against tax evasion notices.  The court asked the Sharifs’ counsel to present details of the legal heirs of Mian Muhammad Sharif (late), who had also filed an appeal, but subsequently passed away.

The appeals were filed by Mian Nawaz Sharif and his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his wife Nusrat Shahbaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Mian Tariq Shafi and Mian Javaid Shafi.

The Tax Department has accused the Sharif family of evading Rs650 million taxes from 1990 to 2000.  The department has also imposed a penalty for this evasion.

Sharif family’s counsel, Advocate Malik Tariq Aziz, said regarding Nawaz Sharif that the department had never disclosed the amount of tax he owed and he was sent a vague notice which had no legal value.

He said that the order of the Income Tax Commissioner was repugnant and inconsistent with Sections 3 and 4 of Wealth Tax Act 1963 which states that no penalty or additional tax can be imposed during the pendency of appeal. The appeals of the petitioners, he said, were pending for the last seven years.

He said that Kulsoom Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif had paid income tax during the period and no objection was raised against their payments at that time.He said the notices were issued to petitioners after 2000 and the objection regarding the assessment was raised 1,213 days later instead of the normal 60 days.

He further said that the re-opening of the case was illegal as the Tax Department had already accepted the payment.

Malik submitted that the notice was a violation of Section 177 of the Income Tax Ordinance and requested the court to declare the department’s assessment after such delay illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2010.