Islamabad:
The executive director of Pakistan Income Automation Limited (PRAL) has refused to obtain a temporary extension in his mandate, creating new challenges for the government whose decision to close or restructure the entity has already sent waves among employees.
The Pral Board had offered the CEO Amir Malik an extension until a new boss was appointed, according to the correspondence seen by the Express PAkGazette. PRAL serves as the backbone of the Pakistan fiscal system.
Malik’s extended mandate will end next week, which occurs just when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has instructed that Pral is launched and replaced with a new and more efficient entity.
The sources said Malik did not accept the Board’s offer to remain temporarily, arguing that neither the Pral Board nor the Federal Income Board (FBR) defended the organization before the Prime Minister. The government has not yet announced the position of executive director in the press.
When contacted, a senior FBR official said the government would hire a new full -time CEO of the market.
Malik did not respond to a request for comments.
The uncertainty about the future of PRAL emerged for the first time when the prime minister directed his closed last month. Later, the Government said that the minutes of the meeting had not been properly registered and that the prime minister wanted to restructure Pral, not close it.
After a story appeared in the Express PAkGazette, the Management and the PRAL Board issued a statement that indicates that the recent discussions about modernization had led to the decision to pivot the existing structure of PRAL to a new avant -garde organization as part of the FBB digital transformation strategy.
PRAL will offer better functionality, financial autonomy and technological innovation, ensuring a world -class experience for both FBR and taxpayers, according to the statement.
He added: “We want to clarify that Pral will continue its operations without interruption during this period. All current systems, services and support functions will remain completely operational to ensure that there are no interruptions for our interested parties.”
The statement also added that the transition will be gradual, well coordinated and perfect, ensuring stability for employees, users and customers at each stage.
The initial three -year period of the CEO had ended in February of this year, which the PRAL Board extended for a period of six months, which will end next week.
The decision to close or restructure PRAL has unstable employees, increasing fears on job security. A couple of senior officials have already presented their resignations, one even in the exemption of the notification period, according to the sources.
The members of the Board of PRAL believed that Malik had sought re -election instead of a short -term extension. They said the Board would announce for a new executive director, while Malik would have the option to dispute the position. Given their experience, they noticed, it could have an advantage over other candidates.
The Senior Management of PRAL was of the opinion that the entity was wrongly blamed for obsolete hardware and software systems, which have reached the end of life and the end of the service and are a reason for the interruptions and the lack of availability of some of the services.
They said that the FBR did not want to completely close the Starr and faster systems, used to process tax reimbursements but still run in Oracle 8.
Taxpayers present returns and pay taxes through the PRAL system, which also serves as a depositary of all tax transactions. However, obsolete hardware and software have asked questions about the sustainability of services. The government had taken a foreign loan in 2019 to update the systems, but the deadlines have expired.
Management has also informed the Board that PRAL faces difficulties to hire experienced professionals in the private sector, including a financial director and product director.
The PRAL administration had also requested the hiring of software platforms and the head of software development. The preselected names were sent to the Board some time ago, but there were delays in the end of the candidates, the sources said.
The FBR, which is based on PRAL for its digital backbone, has also expanded the deadline for submitting the income tax declaration as of October 31, 2025, which can also help you avoid operational interruption after the closure or restructuring of PRAL.
Last week, however, Board PRAL said that despite the planned restructuring, regular services will not be interrupted.
