Army chief Bajwa, family became billionaires during tenure, claims report; Pak govt says leak illegal
In an interview to Geo News programme "Capital Talk", Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar reiterated that leaking the Army chief's income-tax details was "illegal."
- Nov 23, 2022,
- Updated Nov 23, 2022 11:05 AM IST
Merely two weeks before Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's six-year long tenure comes to an end, a damaging report by Pakistani news website FactFocus has put a spotlight on the wealth statements of Bajwa and his family members. Following the revelations, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday said that two people who leaked the income-tax details of the Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa have been identified, and asserted that the probe about the leak would reach its "logical conclusion."
In an interview to Geo News programme "Capital Talk", Dar reiterated that leaking the Army chief's income-tax details was "illegal."
"One person involved in the leak is from Lahore and another from Rawalpindi," he said, adding that it was being probed if they had authority to access the details.
"The law does not allow the release of Army chief or anyone else's income tax returns without a court order," he noted.
According to FactFocus, Gen Bajwa's family members and relatives became billionaires during his six-year tenure, making assets amounting to Rs 12.7 billion.
The report claimed that the assets of Bajwa's wife, Ayesha Amjad, went from zero in 2016 to Rs 2.2 billion (declared and known) in simply six years – not including residential plots, commercial plots, and houses given by the army to her husband.
Moreover, it added that the total worth of the declared assets of Mahnoor Sabir (Bajwa's daughter-in-law) was zero in the last week of October 2018, and jumped to more than one billion (Rs 1271 million) just one week before her marriage on November 2, 2018.
The website also highlighted that in 2013, the tax paid by Sabir Hameed, the Army chief's son's father-in-law, was less than one million. "In the coming years, he became a billionaire, a powerful property business tycoon of Lahore, and started transferring assets abroad," it added further.
(With inputs from PTI)
Also Read: ‘Indian banks are outstanding, international banks terrible,’ claims Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath
Merely two weeks before Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa's six-year long tenure comes to an end, a damaging report by Pakistani news website FactFocus has put a spotlight on the wealth statements of Bajwa and his family members. Following the revelations, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday said that two people who leaked the income-tax details of the Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa have been identified, and asserted that the probe about the leak would reach its "logical conclusion."
In an interview to Geo News programme "Capital Talk", Dar reiterated that leaking the Army chief's income-tax details was "illegal."
"One person involved in the leak is from Lahore and another from Rawalpindi," he said, adding that it was being probed if they had authority to access the details.
"The law does not allow the release of Army chief or anyone else's income tax returns without a court order," he noted.
According to FactFocus, Gen Bajwa's family members and relatives became billionaires during his six-year tenure, making assets amounting to Rs 12.7 billion.
The report claimed that the assets of Bajwa's wife, Ayesha Amjad, went from zero in 2016 to Rs 2.2 billion (declared and known) in simply six years – not including residential plots, commercial plots, and houses given by the army to her husband.
Moreover, it added that the total worth of the declared assets of Mahnoor Sabir (Bajwa's daughter-in-law) was zero in the last week of October 2018, and jumped to more than one billion (Rs 1271 million) just one week before her marriage on November 2, 2018.
The website also highlighted that in 2013, the tax paid by Sabir Hameed, the Army chief's son's father-in-law, was less than one million. "In the coming years, he became a billionaire, a powerful property business tycoon of Lahore, and started transferring assets abroad," it added further.
(With inputs from PTI)
Also Read: ‘Indian banks are outstanding, international banks terrible,’ claims Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath