Supreme Court (SC) on Monday dismissed the "contempt of court" pertaining to deduction of income tax on the amount of golden hand shake directly by the government entities. At Karachi Registry, a larger bench of the SC headed by Justice Mushir Alam heard the petitions of over one hundred former employees of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and one employee of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), who benefited from golden hand shake scheme.

Petitioners submitted in the court that they wanted to pay the income tax themselves rather than the deduction of the tax by the government institution concerned. They stated that they benefited from the scheme in 1998 and the due income tax on it was deducted by their institutions.

Federal Services Tribunal restrained the government institutions from deducting the income tax, which was upheld by the SC bench in the past when some of the employees moved the court. The SBP assured to pay the amount without deducting tax to some of the employees.

Over one hundred employees of the SBP and one employee of the PIA, who were not part of earlier litigation moved the SC against the SBP by filing the "contempt of court" petitions accusing it non-complying with the court orders. The SC bench disposed of the contempt of court petitions against the SBP and PIA by dismissing them.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019