Law: Income Tax Ordinance, 2001

Section: 216,3,8,10,15,16,17,1819(2)

Freedom of Information Ordinance (XCVI of 2002)---Ss. 3, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19(2)---Income Tax Ordinance (XLIX of 2001), S.216---Constitution of Pakistan, Art.19-A---Refusal to provide requested information---Commissioner Inland Revenue refused to provide the requester/complainant information pertaining to specific aspects of the Federal Board of Revenue's working---Commissioner had declined to provide requested information, contending that under S.216(1) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, such information being confidential could not be disclosed---Validity---Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002, enabled citizens to ask for publicly held information as a matter of right and enabled citizens to have access to public records---Purpose of the said Ordinance was to ensure transparency and promote good governance by making the Government more accountable and open and was meant to make Government more efficient and citizen friendly delivering public services---Access to information was a sine qua non for a constitutional democracy---Public had a right to know everything done by the Public Functionaries, subject to any restriction imposed by law---In the present case, the data/documents requested by the requester did not fall within any of the exemptions provided under Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002---No exemption could be claimed on the basis of any other law---Provisions of the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002 also had overriding effect over the provisions of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 as given in its S.3 (a non obstante provision)---Article 19-A of the Constitution enshrined the right to information as a Fundamental Right, subject to regulation and reasonable restriction---Authorities were bound to disclose information requested by the requester---Federal Tax Ombudsman directed that, Federal Board of Revenue would ensure that the provisions of the Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002, were implemented in letter and spirit and with minimum delay; that Board would collate the requisite data and forward a consolidated report to the requester; that Board would appoint a "designated official" under S.10 of Freedom of Information Ordinance, 2002,…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492