Money matters: Pharmacist secures bail over counterfeit cheques

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) accepted the bail application of a pharmacist held for allegedly issuing bogus cheques.

Iqbal had reportedly borrowed Rs0.1 billion from Sarfaraz at an interest rate of 34%. However, he was later arrested for handing bogus cheques to Sarfaraz in return. On July 12, PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan rejected Iqbal’s bail plea.

Justice Khan had expressed concern over how Sarfaraz managed to arrange such a huge amount and questioned how much tax he had paid. To this end, the PHC chief justice directed the chief commissioner for revenue to dispatch a team of income tax officials to probe the matter.

During the hearing on Friday, Income Tax Inspector Umar Farooq informed the court that Sarfaraz had not paid any income tax, upon which the court directed Farooq to serve Sarfaraz a show-cause notice. The inspector was also told to take action against Sarfaraz if he was found guilty of defaulting on other taxes.

The bench observed if the elite class started paying income tax for five years, 80% of the country’s foreign loans could be returned, adding the income tax department is totally corrupt and officials do not take action if they are bribed.

The court later accepted Iqbal’s bail request and instructed to resolve the dispute by involving a third party and repaying the borrowed amount within a fixed period.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2013.