ISLAMABAD: Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court on Tuesday raised a critical query over whether the National Assembly could be granted constitutional authority to legislate tax provisions outside the regular financial year. His observation came during hearings before a five-judge constitutional bench led by Justice Aminuddin Khan, which is examining multiple petitions against the amended Section 4C of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 2001.
Senior counsel Hafiz Ehsaan Ahmad Khokhar, representing the Federal Board of Revenue, countered that the petitions did not challenge legislative competence but rather the scope of taxation powers already conferred on parliament under Article 77 of the Constitution. He argued that the super tax, first introduced in 2015 and expanded in 2022, was a lawful fiscal tool designed to fund national rehabilitation efforts.
Mr Khokhar insisted that Sections 4B and 4C fall squarely within parliament’s plenary taxing authority and have been upheld by high courts in earlier challenges. He criticized judicial attempts to reinterpret the tax scheme as “judicial legislation,” stressing that courts may only strike down laws for clear rights violations, not redesign fiscal frameworks.
The bench will review the federal government’s forthcoming written response, with the issue hinging on whether progressive slabs and sector-specific taxation under Section 4C amount to constitutional overreach or a legitimate extension of parliament’s taxing power.
