Via The News - ISLAMABAD: The Sindh Assembly, like the federal and other provincial legislatures, is not immune to tax evasion as 115 out of 167 MPAs have declared under oath that they did not pay income tax at the time of contesting the general elections in 2008. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah mentioned Rs225 income tax in his 2008 nomination papers whereas the newly-installed opposition leader, an MQM MPA, Syed Sardar Ahmad, paid Rs62,100 in the year he contested the Sindh Assembly elections.
However, his two other colleagues who are prominently featured in different talk shows, Raza Haroon and Faisal Sabzwari, declared no income tax in the 2008 nomination papers.Makhdoom Amin Faheem's brother Jamil-uz-Zaman did not pay tax like his elder brother who is still not registered for the NTN, no matter he is the federal commerce minister.
Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza also falls in this category. There were 10 MPAs whose nomination papers were burnt during the riots followed by Benazir Bhutto's assassination hence they could not be examined for the tax study.
The News has already reported the state of massive tax evasion on the part of lawmakers in parliament and other provincial assemblies. In the National Assembly, 181 (out of 342) MNAs declared zero tax. Those claimed payment is subject to verification. The Punjab Assembly has 202 MPAs (out of 371) who evaded the tax. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly housed 90 MPAs (out of 125) who admitted in nomination papers paying no income tax.
There were such 51 MPAs (out of 65) in the Balochistan Assembly.
As for as the 115 non-taxpaying MPAs of the Sindh Assembly are concerned, they are: Dr Nasrullah Baloch, Anwar Ahmad Mahar, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, Syed Javed Hussain Shah, Jam Mehtab Dahar, Jam Ikramullah Dharejo, Raheem Bux Khan, Shahryar Mahar, Agha Taimoor, Sardar Ghulam Abid Sundrani, Ghalib Hussain Domki, Dr Abdul Sattar Rajper, Ahmad Ali Jalbani, Syed Faseeh Ahmad, Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Bachal Shah, Naeem Ahmad Kharal, Ghulam Sarwar Siyal, Ghulam Mujadid Isran, Aziz Ahmad Jatoi, Najmuddin Abro, Makhdoom Jameel-uz-Zaman, Pir Amir Ali Shah, Muhammad Akram, Syed Wasim Hussain, Zubair Ahmad, Suhail Yousaf, Pir Amjad Shah Jillani, Imdad Ali, Abdul Karim Soomro, Mir Muhammad Hassan Talpur, Bashir Khan, Nawaz Chandio, Arbab Zulfiqar Ali, Abdul Razzak Rahimoon, Faheem Ahmad, Ali Nawaz Shah, Haji Hayat Talpur, Mir Mehboob Ali, Taimur Talpur, Syed Ali Mardan Shah, Dr Sikandar Ali Shoro, Murad Ali Shah, Rana Abdul Sattar, Qazi Shams Din, Jam Madad Ali, Fida Hussain Dero, Abdul Salam Thaheem, Abdul Jaleel Memon, Sassi Palijo, Shah Hussain Shirazi, Haji Usman Jalbani, Akhtar Hussain Jadoon, Nadeem Bhutto, Hanif Sheikh, Abdul Haseeb, Ameer Nawab, Syed Manzar Imam, Mazahir Ameer Khan, Muhammad Adil Khan, Moin Khan, Kh Izharul Hassan, Abdul Moid Siddiqui, Imamuddin Shehzad, Khalid bin Waliyat, Anwar Alam, Saleem Hingoro, Rafique Advocate, Mohammad Shoaib, Tahir Qureshi, Askari Taqvi, Raza Haroon, Dr Sagheer Ahmad, Nishat Muhamad Zia Qadri, Waseem Ahmad, Alim-ur-Rehman, Moin Amir Pirzada, Faisal Ali Sabzwari, Nisar Panhwar, Amanullah Masood, Sajid Jokhio, Nuzhat Pathan, Syeda Marvi Rashdi, Nusrat Bano Seher, Dr Sajila Leghari, Shehnaz Saifuddin, Sabira Khatoon, Naheed Begum, Musarrat Bano Warsi, Hasna Aftab, Zareen Majeed, Heer Soobhu, Nadia Gabol, Bilqees Mukhtar, Rashida Panhwar, Tauqeer Fatima, Nargis ND Khan, Shehla Raza, Kulsoom Chandio, Rainaz Bozdar, Shama Arif Mithani, Ruqayya Khanum Soomro, Humeria Alwani, Ayesha Khoso, Firdous Hameed Farheen Mughal, Shazia Marri, Najma Chawla, Shamim Ara Panhwar, Lal Chand, Stephen Asif Peter, Hargan Das Ahuja, Saleem Khurshid Khokhar, Partab Singh, Moqueem Alam and Mohsin Bokhari.
Fourteen MPAs whose income tax amount ranged between Rs100 to Rs10,000 are: Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Tariq Masood Arain, Ali Murad Rajar, Sardar Ahmad Ali Pitafi, Imran Zafar Leghari, Agha Siraj Durrani, Rehan Zafar, Zahid Ali Bhurgari, Fayaz Butt, Ali Ghulam, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Dr Nadeem Maqbool, Pitanbar Sewani and Syed Khalid Ahmad.
Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and four others had their income tax amount between Rs10,001 to Rs20,000. The remaining four are: Mansoor Jatoi, Farzana Hanif, Sheikh M Afzal (Khalid Umar) and Arif Mustafa Jatoi.
Former chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and two MQM MPAs, Syed Raza Haider and Shoaib Bokhari advocate, had their tax figure between Rs20,001 to Rs30,000.Three MPAs whose taxes fell between Rs30,001 to Rs50,000 are: Haji Munawar Abbasi, Mohan Mal and Abdul Haque alias Dost Muhammad.
Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khurho, Manzoor Wassan, Syed Sardar Ahmad, Abdul Rauf Siddiqui and four others, Mukesh Kumar, Abid Hussain Jatoi, Sardar Jam Tamachi Unar, and Dr Ahmad Ali Shah, had paid income tax ranging between Rs50,001 to Rs100,000.
Sharjeel Inam Memon, Muzammil Qureshi, and Haji Muzaffar Shujra paid tax between Rs100,001 to Rs250,000.Former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and five others paid income tax above one million rupees each. They are: Rukhsana Shah, Dr Daya Ram, Muhammad Ali Malkani, Adil Siddiqui and Dr Mohammad Ali Shah.
Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq, Nadir Magsi and eight others had their nomination papers burnt at local election offices therefore couldn't be examined. The remaining MPAs falling in this category are: Ghulam Muhammad Shahliani, Abdul Raheem Khoso, Mir Hassan Khoso, Mehboob Ali Bijarani, Rafique Banbhan, Pir Ahmad Raza Shah Jillani, Ali Nawaz Rizvi and Syed Ghulam Shah.