In modern times, democratic governance models are universally longed and desired for political inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and for securing and protecting fundamental rights of their citizens.

Under such a system rights and obligations are precisely defined and protected, and all citizens are promised to be treated in accordance with the law. In the same vein, businesses, properties, and assets of citizens are protected from any undue and arbitrary charge and levy of tax burden except through an act of Parliament.

The framers of Pakistan’s constitution also accorded due protection to such rights under article 77 of the constitution, which laid down that the tax is to be levied by law only and that no tax will be levied except under the authority of an act of parliament.

The purpose of such constitutional guarantees is to create a trust and strengthen a sacrosanct bond between state and citizens, whereby loyalty to the state and obedience to constitution and law are secured by protecting fundamental rights including right to life, security, trade and business and rights to property and protection thereof.

In fact, the purpose of constitutional and legal protection is to create a fair tax charge and due liabilities on citizens in respect of their incomes and assets and not such charges and levies which look unreasonable, unfair, confiscatory and extractive and while discharging their liabilities, citizens should not feel like subjects of the state instead of honourable citizens of the state.

Therefore, charging tax on amounts which are otherwise not liable to tax, on one pretext or another, or through stretched fiction of law for purposes of enhancing revenue figures tends to erode the sacred trust between the........

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