ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday took major decisions to safeguard his government’s financial integrity and ensure the bureaucracy does not bypass his appointed deputy ministers in economic policy matters.
PM Sharif issued separate instructions to notify a new joint inquiry team to analyse rising tax fraud cases and to direct federal secretaries to respect his nominated ministers of state, according to these instructions.
The prime minister constituted a joint inquiry team of intelligence agencies and field experts to analyse the reasons behind the growing number of sales tax frauds and to provide actionable recommendations, according to the instructions.
Separately, the Cabinet Division issued directives to all federal secretaries that the minister of state “should be consulted in cases to be submitted for consideration of the prime minister or the federal cabinet.” The instructions were issued on behalf of the PM after Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik complained that he was being bypassed in important matters by the Ministry of Finance.
“The prime minister has been pleased to direct that in ministries where ministers of state have been appointed in addition to federal ministers-in-charge, the ministers of state should also be consulted in cases to be submitted for consideration of the prime minister or the federal cabinet,” stated the Cabinet Division.
To ensure impartiality, the prime minister appointed Petroleum Minister Dr Musadiq Malik as the convener of the joint inquiry committee. Sharif excluded representatives from the finance and revenue ministries, appointing only one representative from the Intelligence & Investigation wing of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Malik is known for confronting vested interests.
According to the prime minister’s office, the inquiry team has been constituted with immediate effect and will submit its report within one month.
Malik will serve as chairman of the team. Members include Bilal Azhar Kayani, a PML-N Member of the National Assembly; Tanvir Akhtar Malik, a former member of the FBR; Ghazi Akhtar Khan, a chartered accountant who contributed to the FBR’s transformation plan; and Dr Fareed Zafar. Representatives from the Intelligence Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Financial Monitoring Unit, and FBR’s Intelligence & Investigation wing, including Director Amir Abbas Khan, are also part of the team.
