This supposed letter from Naeem Bokhari seem more like the rants of a disgruntled Customs officer than anything else. It is being made to look what it is not. It seems that exactly identical sentences have been carefully lifted from Naeem Bokhari's original letter to CJP and combined with allegations related to CBR. The give-away however, which proves beyond any doubt that it is a forged document, comes from the repeated invocations to Chairman CBR to manage the dispensation of justice (but at one place dispensation of economic justice). Since when has the Chairman of CBR become responsible for dispensation of justice in Pakistan?

Everyone knows the shambles our Customs and Income Tax Departments had been in prior to the reform process implemented under the stewardship of Mr. Abdullah Yousuf. If anyone has any doubt, they should read the detailed paper titled " Reform of Tax Administration in Pakistan" provided on the CBR's website. Prior to these reforms these two departments were ranked the most corrupt in Pakistan by Transparency International. The reforms have been aimed at taking away discretionary powers of the tax officials, minimising their public dealings by relying upon information technology tools, increasing salary packages and giving immediate relief to the taxpayers by suspending tax audits for a limited time period to stop their harassment at the hands of corrupt income tax and customs officers. As the CBR itself has announced selective audits will begin next year and tax evasion will be dealt with an iron-fist. Posting of income tax officers in the Sales Tax Department is a welcome change in the structure of CBR. With this master-stroke, the hegemony of one wing (i.e. Customs) in CBR has ended and some balance has been restored. It is a well-known fact that Sales Tax wing was part of the erstwhile Pakistan Taxation Service before it was gifted to Customs. Time has now come to create an Inland Revenue Service (IRS) staffed entirely by qualified Tax officials responsible for collecting all domestic taxes whereas Customs should be a service dedicated to check smuggling and imposing duties on imports and exports only. Yes I have my criticisms of Abdullah Yousuf. He is a relative of now-notorious Chief of Staff to Gen. Musharraf, Lt. Gen (retd.) Hamid Javed and has quite disgracefully given an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the Chief Justice but we should give the devil his due and recognise his positive role in the reforms process of CBR.