Aleema Khanum to pay Rs 29.4m as fine, tax on foreign properties: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Aleema Khanum, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister, to pay Rs 29.4 million in taxes and fine.

A three-judge SC bench, while hearing a case against 44 politically exposed individuals or their benamidars who possess properties in the United Arab Emirates, remarked that failure on Khanum’s part to oblige to court orders will result in confiscation of her properties.

In today’s hearing, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told the court that a fine and tax worth Rs 29.4m has been placed on Khanum, who has been identified as benamidar of a property.

This case is the result of a list of politically exposed people which was submitted as part of an annexure to a three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.

Taking suo motu notice of the matter, the apex court had observed that it appeared the money siphoned off abroad without payment of taxes through illegal channels represented either ill-gotten gains or kickbacks from public contracts.

“Such money creates gross disproportion, inequality and disparity in society, which warps economic activity and growth, and constitutes plunder and theft of national wealth,” it had said.

In an earlier order, the court had also observed that it was common knowledge for years that a large number of Pakistani citizens were maintaining their bank accounts in other countries without disclosing these to the authorities competent under the laws of Pakistan or paying taxes on the same in accordance with the law.