Pak Finance Minister orders probe into leak of Army chief's family's tax records

Islamabad, Nov 21 (IANS) Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday took notice of the "illegal and unwarranted" leak of tax information of Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa's family members, media reports said.

"This is clearly a violation of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides," a statement from the Finance Division read, Geo News reported.

An immediate investigation into the violation of tax law and breach of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) data will be carried out, said the statement. 

In view of this serious lapse on the part of to-date unknown functionaries, Dar has directed the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue, Tariq Mehmood Pasha, to personally lead the probe, affix responsibility and submit a report within 24 hours, the statement added, Geo News reported.

The General’s family has started joint business ventures with Sabir 'Mithu' Hameed of Lahore (father to Mahnoor and father-in-law of Bajwa’s son), and the same year Hameed started transferring capital outside Pakistan and purchasing properties abroad, Fact Focus reported.

The General’s wife, Ayesha, became a multi-billionaire with large farmhouses at Gulberg Greens in Islamabad and Karachi, multiple residential plots in Lahore, and commercial plots and plazas in DHA schemes.

Bajwa’s wife became the owner of two commercial plazas in Phase IV and Phase VI of DHA Lahore while he was COAS. Ayesha used to hold money (some half a million dollars) in her US dollar (USD) accounts, the report said.

FBR records show that the General’s wife was warned multiple times for concealing assets.