Pakistan court suspends notices to businesses in tax case — Dawn
The Peshawar High Court in Pakistan has suspended notices sent by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to several industrial enterprises in the former tribal areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The notices were related to an investigation into alleged tax fraud, Dawn reports.
A bench comprising Justices Syed Arshad Ali and Babar Sattar also issued notices to the FIA director general, the agency’s director in Islamabad and the deputy director of the anti-corruption unit, requiring their response to the enterprises’ petition. The court ordered that the petition be consolidated with an earlier-filed case in the same matter and scheduled the next hearing for October 6, 2026.
Enterprises’ position
The petitioners, including Bara Ghee Mills, are seeking to have declared unlawful the notices dated September 3, 2026, a letter from a Ministry of Interior unit regarding a criminal investigation into private taxpayers, and the actions of the joint investigation team.
Their representatives argue that the FIA has no jurisdiction to investigate the determination of tax liabilities, exemptions, consumption certificates, quotas and audits under the Sales Tax Act 1990 and the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 unless a specific offence from the list provided by law is first established.
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Certificate review
Lawyers Ishaq Ali Kazi and Saad Ali Kazi said that the notices asked the companies and a number of other industrial enterprises to provide documents dating back to their establishment: production records, customs declarations, letters of credit, production and sales data, consumption certificates, and information on taxes paid outside tax-exempt zones.
According to them, the notices concerned a criminal investigation into possible tax evasion involving imported raw materials. A subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control had previously instructed the FIA to conduct, within two months, an investigation into consumption certificates issued to various companies worth 1.12 trillion Pakistani rupees.
The committee noted that tax-exempt raw materials worth 1.12 trillion rupees had entered the former FATA and PATA from 2018 to 2026, and expressed concern about the risk of their illegal diversion to markets where taxes apply.
