Editorial: The Express Tribune - 03 June 2013

Welcome words


Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s remarks stating that both Pakistan and India sought good ties with each other, and that both he and Mian Nawaz Sharif wanted to work towards a closer relationship, signal the way that lies ahead. We must hope the leaders from both nations succeed in walking calmly down it, laying down solid foundations of peace as they do so.

This process will, of course, take time, but possessing strong will would be an important factor along the way. Prime Minister Singh, talking after completing a visit to nations in the Far East, made it clear that both he and Mr Sharif shared a common vision as far as this was concerned. He said both the heads of government had invited each other to their respective countries and he hoped these trips would materialise soon. It may be recalled that Mr Sharif had said that he would consider inviting the Indian prime minister to his inauguration, but Dr Singh had suggested a trip across the border a little later down the line, which may yield better results. Good results are, of course, what we need most of all on this front. With elections in India due to take place next year, one hopes that the incoming government in New Delhi is also inclined towards peace and closer cooperation on several fronts.
The fact is that both nations and their people would benefit tremendously from less acrimony. The friction we saw after the Mumbai siege of 2008 set us back a long way. The movement forward has begun again, but momentum needs to be picked up. It must be hoped the good intentions expressed by the Indian head of government will help in this. Improved trade links could alone help people in both lands. Easier visa procedures to enable people to meet are also imperative. For Pakistan, caught in its own net of problems, looking towards India could help us rediscover the wider South Asian whole that is so important a part of our history and culture. This, in itself, could help build tolerance and harmony. The Indian prime minister’s words are then significant, both for us as a nation and for the region as a whole. They must be taken forward so that the vision both leaders share can be transformed into reality.
 
Power of taxation

In the year 1215, almost exactly eight centuries ago, the barons of England forced King John to sign a document that would limit his power to tax the people of the country by requiring approval from their elected representatives, who would meet in a body to be called parliament. Thus was born Westminster.
On the eve of the completion of Pakistan’s first democratic transfer of power, it is worth reminding ourselves why we bother to elect our governments in the first place: the government has the power to collect taxes from us and then use the money thus collected to provide us with services. We elect our representatives to make sure that our voices are heard when it comes to decisions of both taxation and distribution. So, it is somewhat refreshing that the bureaucrats at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have decided that they are finally willing to relinquish the power of deciding taxation policy to parliament.
We say this with some degree of irony, because that power should never have belonged to the FBR in the first place. It is one of the most gaping oversights in the transition to democracy: we seem to have forgotten that our military dictators decided to empower civil servants at the expense of elected representatives by giving the FBR the power to arbitrarily change the rates of taxation on virtually whomever they like, whenever they like and with very little parliamentary control over what they do. In essence, the money bill passed by the National Assembly can be completely undone in the corner offices across the street at the FBR headquarters.
At a pre-budget seminar organised by Express News, senior FBR officials generously offered to give this power back to parliament. We urge the incoming members of the National Assembly to take up the bureaucrats on their so-called offer and eliminate this power permanently for the FBR, making taxation policy the exclusive preserve of the elected representatives of the people. The evolution of our democracy will remain incomplete without this measure.