ISLAMABAD: The federal government tightened the noose around the officers who leaked confidential tax data of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family members.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) made progress in the probe into the COAS Bajwa, family tax data leak case. The PM’s aide on revenue Tariq Pasha sent the probe report to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
According to the initial report, two in-land revenue officers were removed from their posts including deputy commissioner in-land revenue Atif Nawaz Waraich and DC in-land revenue Zahoor Ahmed.
The officers were being probed over the alleged violations of the Income Tax Ordinance’s Clause 198 and 216. The senior officers were accused of the data leak as their login IDs and passwords were used to leak confidential information.
FactFocus describes itself as a “Pakistan-based digital media news organisation working on data-based investigative news stories”.
According to the FactFocus report regarding the alleged tax records of COAS Bajwa’s family, the current market value of the known assets and business of the army chief, both within and outside Pakistan, amounted to Rs12.7 billion.
The report also shared the alleged wealth statements of Gen Bajwa and his family from 2013 to 2021.
It claimed that the assets of Gen Bajwa’s wife, Ayesha Amjad, went from zero in 2016 to Rs2.2 billion (declared and known) in six years. The report stated the amount didn’t include residential plots, commercial plots and houses given by the army to her husband.
The report also alleged that the total worth of the declared assets of Mahnoor Sabir (Gen Bajwa’s daughter-in-law ) jumped from zero in last week of October 2018 to Rs1,271 million on Nov 2, 2018, while the assets of Mahnoor’s sister Hamna Naseer went from zero in 2016 to “billions” by 2017. Furthermore, the tax returns of Sabir Hameed — the army chief’s son’s father-in-law — were less than a million in 2013 but “in the coming years, he became a billionaire”, the website claimed.
According to the publication, it was unable to obtain data about assets in the name of Gen Bajwa’s two sons.
FactFocus has claimed that after the publication of the story, the traffic on its site was “disrupted” while also claiming that the website had been “banned”.