When the Super Tax was introduced in 2015, it was not sold to the public as an ordinary fiscal measure. The government explicitly linked it to the extraordinary circumstances created by prolonged counterterrorism operations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the then FATA. The stated objective was rehabilitation: rebuilding lives shattered by militancy and military operations, particularly after Operation Zarb-e-Azb. The narrative was compelling and morally persuasive — those with greater economic capacity would contribute to the rehabilitation of citizens who had borne the brunt of the war on terror.

In the years that followed, however, the gap between promise and practice steadily widened. Now, with the Supreme Court/Federal Constitutional Court having allowed recovery of Super Tax retrospectively from 2015 — amounting to over Rs300 billion — it is not unreasonable to ask whether the state remembers the very justification on which this tax was imposed.

The question becomes more pressing when viewed against the scale of human displacement caused by security operations. In the wake of Zarb-e-Azb and subsequent operations in North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Khyber (particularly Tirah) and Bajaur, Pakistan witnessed one of the largest internal displacements in its history. Entire populations were uprooted, often overnight. Homes were abandoned, livelihoods destroyed, social structures disrupted, and a way of life that had existed for generations was abruptly........

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