Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that the government has received intelligence reports identifying two officials involved in the “illegal and unwarranted” leak of army chief General Qamar Bajwa and his family’s income tax records.
Providing further details on the report during a Geo TV interview, Dar said the two officials are from Lahore and Rawalpindi and probably had the authorisation to look into and assess Bajwa’s income tax records.
The finance minister stressed, “The law does not allow the release of army chief or anyone else’s income tax returns without a court order,” adding that the leak violated the “confidentiality of tax information.” He revealed that authorities will submit the final report in 24 hours.
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According to Section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance, the Pakistani Federal Board of Revenue must protect the confidentiality of taxpayers’ records. In this regard, Dar emphasised the need to reprimand the involved individuals and take the incident to its “logical conclusion.”
The Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Revenue, Tariq Pasha, on Tuesday launched a review to look into the media leak and will eventually present details of his findings to Dar.
The controversy was instigated by Fact Focus journalist Ahmad Noorani’s report on the sharp increase in Bajwa’s family wealth in a short span of six years from 2016 to 2022, after looking at their tax returns from the financial years 2015 and 2021.
He wrote, “The current market value of the – known – assets and businesses within Pakistan and outside accumulated by the Bajwa family during the last six years is more than Rs12.7 billion [$57 million].”
As Editor of Fact Focus, I am thankful to Daily DAWN for publishing this wonderful story.
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The report also says "Fact Focus claims that it's website is blocked".
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Noorani highlighted that the family has launched businesses, bought farmhouses in major cities, purchased foreign properties, become owners of commercial plazas, and sent significant capital to foreign accounts.
Bajwa revised his wealth statement for 2013 at least three times between 2013 and 2017.
Noorani wrote, “He claimed that in fact he had purchased this plot back in 2013 but forgot to declare. He would continue to forget for the next four years and could only remember his omissions in 2017, one year after becoming army chief.”
Similarly, Bajwa’s wife, Ayesha Amjad, declared eight assets under the “Any Other Assets” category in 2016 but then claimed she claimed in 2018 that she had zero holdings in 2015.
However, her personal assets increased from zero to around $10 million over the course of six years, which did not include “residential plots, commercial plots, and houses given by the army to her husband.”
In addition, Fact Focus said it will soon release additional details of regulatory authorities warning Bajwa’s wife about concealing assets.
The report also highlighted that Bajwa’s daughter-in-law, Mahnoor Sabir, “became a billionaire” just nine days before marrying into the family in November 2018, wherein she claimed back-dated ownership of several properties.
GHQ has forwarded the summary for Selection of CJCSC and COAS, containing names of 6 senior most Lt Gens to MoD.
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After the damming report, Pakistani authorities blocked Fact Focus, which has vowed to fight censorship and urged users to use VPN to access the information. The media organisation has previously released several such exposés against politicians, including former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The allegations against Bajwa come less than two weeks before the end of the army chief’s tenure.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif revealed that he has sent PM Shehbaz Sharif a summary of the recommendations for Bajwa’s replacement. In fact, the army provided the names of six senior-most army officials to the Ministry of Defence on Tuesday.