The Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan (FCCP) has definitively dismissed a massive batch of review petitions and civil appeals filed by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and various Commissioners of Inland Revenue, cementing the legal invalidity of the “Income Support Levy Act, 2013”.
Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi issued the comprehensive 80-page judgment on October 28, 2026, explicitly rejecting the government’s attempts to enforce the levy and criticizing internal judicial irregularities surrounding the appeals process.
The primary constitutional controversy centered on whether the “Income Support Levy”, enacted through the “Finance Act, 2013”, could legitimately bypass the Senate by being classified as a Money Bill under “Article 73(2)” of “the Constitution”.
The FCCP ruled definitively that the levy failed to meet the strict constitutional definition of taxation required for such an exemption. Consequently, by evading the ordinary legislative procedure mandated under “Article 70”, which necessitates the participation of both Houses of Parliament, the Act failed to acquire the status of a valid law.
“The constitutional character of legislation must be determined by reference to its substance, object and legal effect rather than its nomenclature or the legislative instrument through which it is introduced.”
Chief Justice Khan emphasized that the Senate’s legislative authority is a substantive safeguard for federating units, not merely a procedural formality that can be circumvented by burying levies inside Finance Acts. The judgment noted that “Article 73” constitutes a limited exception to standard legislative procedures and cannot be arbitrarily expanded.
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The court further addressed the government’s subsequent repeal of the Act via “section 10 of the Finance Act, 2014”. Because the repeal did not explicitly preserve ongoing recovery proceedings, and because the original Act was declared constitutionally invalid from its inception, the court concluded that the FBR’s attempts to enforce associated tax liabilities completely lost their legal foundation.
“Once the Act was held not to have acquired the status of a valid law, the question of enforcing liabilities purportedly arising thereunder necessarily lost its legal foundation.”
Beyond the macroeconomic implications for tax collection, the ruling delivered a severe rebuke regarding internal judicial discipline. The court heavily criticized a subsequent three-member Bench order, authored by Mr. Justice Munib Akhtar on June 21, 2022, which had granted leave to appeal on identical questions while review petitions of the original ruling were already pending.
The FCCP described this subsequent action as raising “serious concerns regarding judicial discipline, legal norms and institutional propriety”, reiterating that coordinate Benches must respect earlier judicial determinations to maintain institutional integrity and legal certainty.
The sweeping dismissal applies to hundreds of connected civil appeals and petitions, with the sole exception of “C.P.L.A. 863-L/2023”, which was adjourned for a separate hearing as it involves a distinct point of law.