Meet Pakistan's highest tax payer politician

A quick look into nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for 2018 general elections reveals an interesting detail about the taxes the electoral hopefuls paid during last three years.

Amongst the uber-rich paying next to nothing in taxes and the richest candidate paying not a single rupee in tax, the man who turns out to be the highest tax payer is no political heavyweight.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Najeeb Haroon, a relatively lesser known political figure, has paid more than Rs86 million in taxes during the year 2015 and Rs134 million (0.134 billion) in the year 2017.

“I am an engineer by profession and working in construction industry since last 31 years, I have been contributing to the national exchequer (through taxes), when Imran Khan formed PTI, he also urged wealthy and affluent Pakistanis to pay their taxes in full so their underprivileged country men can enjoy its benefits,” Najeeb Haroon told ARY News when asked about his tax record.

Najeeb who is set to contest from Karachi’s NA-256 constituency will face Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sajid Hasan, Muttahida Majlis Amal’s (MMA) Mairajul Huda and MQM’s Amir Chishti.

Considered a founding member of PTI, before being chosen for NA-256, Najeeb Haroon contested last year’s PS-114 by-polls in Karachi, a battle he lost to PPP’s Saeed Ghani.

The seat had fallen vacant after Irfanullah Marwat — who won the seat in the 2013 general elections on the PML-N ticket by defeating MQM candidate Rauf Siddiqui — was unseated as the election result was declared void by an election tribunal.

His political journey, however, began much earlier.

As an engineering student at the city’s famous NED University, he won the student union election in his final year to acquire the coveted position of President of the Student Union.

He then flied to US for further studies and completed his Masters in Civil Engineering from the Oregon State University USA. After coming back to Pakistan in the year 1987, he started Principal Builders, a construction company, the source of his income, through which he pays millions in taxes.

Amongst politicians who graced the country’s parliament in last five year, PTI’s Jehangir Tareen, who was later disqualified, was the country’s top tax-paying parliamentarian with Rs53.67 million filed in tax returns in the year 2016.

With the record made public by ECP ahead of general elections, Najeeb is way ahead of top political figures like PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari, who paid Rs22.7 million during the year 2017 and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif who paid Rs10.78 million during the last year.

Even his party chief Imran Khan paid only Rs0.42 million tax on his income during the last year.