LAHORE - The Federal Board of Revenue, violating the courts orders, has dismissed its registered workers union central president Mian Abdul Qayyum from service illegally mainly for raising voice against corruption. The notification in this regard was issued on Monday by FBR chairman Tariq Bajwa.
The Federal Revenue Alliance Employees Union, in emergent meetings held simultaneously at the Lahore Regional Tax Office (RTO), Sialkot RTO, Sukkur RTO, Faisalabad RTO, Multan RTO and Bahawalpur RTO, strongly reacted on the dismissal order of the FBR Union central president. The meetings have unanimously passed a resolution against the illegal act of the FBR management and threatened to go on strike for indefinite period.
The participants of the meeting said that if this anti-worker act is not stopped the protest will be extended to all over the country. He informed that Union’s Lahore region general secretary Shehzad Khurshid and president Syed Naeem Abbas have submitted the resolution with the major Chief Commissioners Inland Revenue, RTOs. And the same resolution will be presented by the union’s regional leaders to Inland Revenue’s rest of the regional offices heads across the country tomorrow.
Union spokesman said that the FBR Union executive bodies of major RTOs have sent the copies of resolution to the concerned chief commissioners, warning them to refrain from taking anti-workers step and withdraw the illegal order otherwise the staff of whole FBR will go on strike, closing the each and every tax office all over the country.
The rest of the Regional Tax Offices of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Pishawar, Karachi and Quetta Customs have also called the meeting on Wednesday in this regard to condemn the illegal act of the management against Union President Mian Abdul Qayyum, which, in fact, is aimed at sabotaging union’s struggle for workers welfare.
The spokesperson said that FBR Union, under the leadership of Mian Qayyum, is not only working for the cause of lower staff of the tax department but also endeavoring for the enhancement in tax collection by digging out corruption of billions of rupees.
“The central president always raised the voice against tax evasion of several big companies, including so-called non-resident companies, which were evading tax of billions of rupees for a long time in connivance with FBR’s own high officials. The crime of the union is just attempting to make the FBR a transparent tax collecting agency but the officials, having some vested interests, do not want this transparency.”
Spokesperson vowed that union, under the leadership of Mian Qayyum, will continue struggle for the cause of workers and field staff, who actually make revenue target possible by their efforts, besides pointing out the revenue leakage due to corrupt officers.