VIEW: Death and taxes —Dr Mahjabeen Islam

One’s mouth hangs open watching footage of houses swallowed by the turbulent waters as though they were made of cards. You rewind and play, thinking that it must be a simulation and forget to move because it is not

A common Americanism attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” In Pakistan, the only certainty these days is death. You’ll find it everywhere you turn: the crash in Margalla Hills, the worst floods in a generation, endless terrorism and resurgent targeted killings. But taxes are an alien concept in Pakistan.

In a shaming July 18 article, the New York Times states: “Out of more than 170 million Pakistanis, fewer than two percent pay income tax, making Pakistan’s revenue from taxes among the lowest in the world, a notch below Sierra Leone’s as a ratio of tax to gross domestic product.” A December study by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency reveals that the average net worth of a Pakistani parliamentarian is $ 900,000 with its richest topping $ 37 million. The article quotes a senior official of the Federal Board of Revenue, Zafarul Majeed, as stating that Pakistan’s income from taxes last year was the lowest in the country’s history. And this in face of the PILDAT study which revealed that Pakistani parliamentarians’ assets doubled during the last year.

To complete our humiliation, the article states: “The country’s top opposition leader Nawaz Sharif reported that he paid no personal income tax for three years ending in 2007 in public documents he filed with Pakistan’s election commission. A spokesman for Mr Sharif, an industrialist who is widely believed to be a billionaire, said he had been in exile and had turned over positions in his companies to relatives. A month of requests for similar documents for Pakistan’s president and prime minister went unanswered by the commission; representatives for the men said they did not have the figures.”

There is a reason for taxes being equated with the certainty of death in the West; they bleed you. And yet how else would healthcare, education, public transport, roads and railways be financed? The industrialisation of Japan, Europe, Canada and the US testifies to the steep and certain taxes imposed on their respective populace.

And in the injustice that is now so Pakistani, sales tax is imposed and breaks the back of the desperate driver who makes $ 123 per month while it is a breeze for the parliamentarian who makes $ 1,400 per month. God forbid that the parliamentarian should pay income tax on his millions. Feudals are so powerful and plentiful in parliament that no federal tax on agriculture has been established. Would eat into that income too, now, would it not?

British Prime Minister David Cameron insulted Pakistan during a visit to India saying, “Britain cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that Pakistan is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror.” Around this time, the Airblue jet crashed in the Margalla Hills, numbing an already worn people. Plans were already set for a presidential jaunt to France and England. The ISI chief cancelled his visit to England in protest against Cameron’s statement but the president went ahead. And then the heavens poured down in torrents and the worst flood in a generation claimed 1,600 lives, affected 3.4 million and erased 70 percent of their livestock.

One’s mouth hangs open watching footage of houses swallowed by the turbulent waters as though they were made of cards. You rewind and play, thinking that it must be a simulation and forget to move because it is not.

It is a terrible day at work for those images keep coming back and block other brain activity. And somehow the day ends and I struggle back only to be hit hard with more devastation and the worst insult to Pakistan’s injury: Zardari’s trip to France and England. Now I feel like I have PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, I am not kidding. PPP diehards in England wailed in protest against the chorus of condemnation.

And when the bill is paid from the taxes of those stupid Pakistanis that did not know how to evade them or the millions brought in from the sales tax, who is counting and who cares?

Zardari and his entourage may have missed the point, but British-Pakistani politicians have not for they stolidly refused to meet him.

And then the foreign policy gaffes. Feeling the criticism, Zardari attempted to deflect it: the coalition was losing the war on terror, he said in an interview to a French paper. Even if that is the case, a statement by the leader of a frontline state only serves to strengthen terrorism and cause more loss of life in Pakistan.

Maybe it is my mental handicap that I am still at a loss to understand this madness. “How do they sleep at night?” I scream at a colleague. He claims they do not have a conscience. I insist that everyone does. Well then, they have given it Valium and put it to bed! So there you have it: no conscience, no taxes. Just a flood of death for the poor.

Mahjabeen Islam is a columnist, family physician and addictionist. She can be reached at mahjabeen.islam@gmail.com