The Army’s media wing on Sunday rejected claims made on social media about the assets of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family, saying the reports were “totally false”. And are based on outright lies.”
Misleading data regarding the assets of Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family has been shared on social media. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that these misleading figures are based on exaggeration and assumptions.
The army’s media wing said that a certain group had very “cunningly and dishonestly” linked the assets of General Bajwa’s daughter-in-law’s father and family to the army chief and his family.
“A false impression is being created that these assets were created by Army Chief General Bajwa’s family during his six-year tenure. ISPR said this is based on sheer lies and lies.
The army’s media wing assured that all the assets of the army chief, his wife and his family have been declared to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Army chiefs and their families file tax returns regularly. The ISPR said that like every citizen, the army chief and his family are accountable to the tax authorities for their assets.
People behind the leak were identified as: Dar
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar took notice of the “illegal and unnecessary” leak of tax information of General Bajwa’s family members.
“This is a clear violation of the absolute confidentiality of tax information that the law provides,” a statement from the finance division read.
In view of this serious lapse on the part of the till date unidentified officials, Dar directed Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha to personally lead the investigation, determine responsibility and within 24 hours. Submit a report inside.
A day later, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar shared during Geo News’ program “Capital Talk” that he had received the interim report on the leak and had traced some of the people involved in the act.
Dar reiterated that it was “illegal” to leak the army chief’s income tax returns. He further said that the government has identified a few people behind this leak and the matter will reach its logical conclusion.
The finance minister said that one person involved in the leak belongs to Lahore and the other to Rawalpindi.
However, he added that there is a possibility that some of those involved may have access to income tax records as there is a “circle” in Rawalpindi where assessments are made.
“These people are authorized to access [the data] for their own evaluation,” Dar said.
The finance minister was of the view that if “illegal work” is allowed or turned a blind eye, one will not be able to fulfill his duty.
The finance minister said that the law does not allow the release of income tax returns of the army chief or anyone else without a court order.
