Gen Bajwa’s family became billionaires in 6 years. Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family members and relatives became billionaires during his 6 year tenure. They make assets amounting to Rs. 12.7 billion. A Pakistani website FactFocus publishes the alleged wealth of General Bajwa and his family from 2013 to 2021. The website also prompts the govt to probe into the “illegal and unwarranted” leak of their tax records.
The FactFocus website describes itself as “Pakistan’s digital media news organization working on data-driven investigative news.”
According to the report regarding the alleged tax records of Gen Bajwa’s family, the current market value of the known assets and business of the army chief, both within and outside Pakistan, amounted to Rs. 12.7 billion.
According to the report citing alleged tax records of General Bajwa’s family, the current market value of the army chief’s known assets and businesses both inside and outside Pakistan is Rs.12.7 billion.
The report, released days before General Bajwa’s scheduled retirement later this month, claimed that the assets of General Bajwa’s wife, Ayesha Amjad, increased from zero to Rs. 2.2 billion (declared and known) in six years in 2016.
The amount did not include residential plots, commercial plots and houses given to her husband by the army, it states.
The report also alleged that the total assets declared by Mahnoor Saber was zero in last week of Oct 2018. Which increase to Rs 1,271 million on November 2, 2018. While Mahnoor’s sister Hamna Naseer’s assets went from zero in 2016 to “billions” in 2017. Mahnoor is General Bajwa’s daughter-in-law.
The website claims furthermore, “the tax returns of Sabir Hameed were less than a million in 2013. But in the coming years, he became a billionaire.” He is the Army chief’s son’s father-in-law.
On Monday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar orders an investigation. After the tax and wealth details of Gen Bajwa’s family members released by the website.
According to a statement, Ishaq Dar takes notice of the “illegal and unwarranted leakage of tax information of the family members of General Qamar Javed Bajwa”.
“This is a clear violation of the absolute confidentiality of tax information that the law provides,” he quotes.
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He directed Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Revenue, Tariq Mehmood Pasha, to personally lead an immediate investigation into the violation of tax law and Federal Bureau of Revenue data breach, assign responsibility and report within 24 hours.
So far the Army does not issue any statement on the Fact Focus report “Gen Bajwa’s family became billionaires in 6 years.”