ISLAMABAD: Days after the finance minister said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) successfully traced the identities of the people suspected of leaking the tax information of family members of Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the military said an investigative report which, citing those records, estimated the combined declared wealth of the family of its outgoing chief at a staggering $56 million was “totally untrue and based on blatant lies and malice”.
Last week, an online investigative news portal, FactFocus, ran the story about the accumulation of wealth and property by family members of Gen. Bajwa during his extended six-year term in office ending Tuesday.
The report alleged that Gen. Bajwa’s immediate and extended family members had exponentially expanded their domestic as well as foreign property and businesses since he took command of the Pakistan Army in 2016.
However, instead of questioning or denying the validity of the information, the office of Ishaq Dar issued a statement saying the finance minister had taken “serious notice” of the leak, calling it a violation of the tax law and a breach of official confidential data.
Subsequently, on Tuesday, Dar said the top revenue authority had traced the identities of staff who apparently leaked the records to Ahmad Noorani, a Washington-based journalist who published the story.
In a statement responding to the report, released no less than a week later, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) claimed the data was being exaggerated on the basis of assumptions.
A “certain group” has “cleverly, and with ill intent,” linked the assets of the father and family of the general’s daughter-in-law with him and his family, the statement said.
The media wing of the military was concerned that a “false impression” was being created that these assets were acquired by Sabir Hameed, a Lahore-based realtor and father of Gen. Bajwa’s daughter-in-law, during his time in office.
“It is totally untrue and based on blatant lies and malice,” the statement said, adding the assets of the general and his family had been declared to the FBR.
The army chief and his family regularly file their tax returns, the statement said. “Like every citizen, the army chief and his family are answerable to the tax authorities for their assets,” it added.
