The Islamabad High Court has temporarily restrained the government from blocking the mobile phone SIMs of tax non-filers and issued a notice to the government, seeking a response by May 27.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court issued the stay order in response to a writ petition filed by the mobile phone company Zong. The petition challenged the new Section 114-B added to the Income Tax Ordinance and the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) new authority to issue income tax general orders.
Advocate Salman Akram Raja, representing the petitioner company, argued that the amendment to the law violates the fundamental right to business freedom under Article 18 of the Constitution. He stated that under this constitutional provision, the government does not have the authority to block people’s phone SIMs. Furthermore, he argued that such coercive laws could also lead the government to deprive citizens of services in other business sectors. The petitioner noted that if more than 500,000 phone SIMs from all phone companies are blocked, Zong alone would face an annual loss of 1 billion rupees.
The court has scheduled the next hearing for May 27 and has notified the government to respond by then.
