ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Saturday remanded a reporter, accused of a tax data leak of former army chief Gen (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family, in custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days.
The FIA arrested Shahid Aslam, who is affiliated with Pakistan's Bol News channel, in Lahore this week, in connection with the data leak.
He was presented before an Islamabad district and sessions court on Saturday, where the FIA requested the judge to grant the agency seven-day remand of the accused.
"The accused, together with co-accused Ahmed Noorani, bribed FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) employees, Arshad Ali Qureshi and others, and obtained tax record data of government functionaries, senior army officers and businesspersons," the agency said in its remand request.
"Of which, accused Ahmed Noorani has uploaded the tax data of former Pakistan army chief and his family on the Fact Focus website."
In November last year, Fact Focus, an independent investigative journalism website, published wealth and tax details of members of General Bajwa’s immediate and extended family, saying they had become "billionaires over the last six months" by establishing international businesses, shifting capital abroad and buying foreign properties.
The report, citing the family’s tax and wealth statements, said the current market value of known assets and businesses owned by the family within Pakistan and abroad during the last six years amounted to “more than Rs12.7 billion.”
After listening to Aslam's counsel and the prosecutor at Saturday's hearing, Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir handed over the journalist to the FIA on a two-day remand.
Fact Focus, which has previously published investigative reports on the “misappropriation of funds” by prominent Pakistani politicians and generals, released the report on General Bajwa, who had been the country’s army chief since 2016, ahead of his retirement on November 29, 2022.
The army chief is arguably the most powerful position in the South Asian country, which has been ruled by its military for nearly half of its history either through coups or as the invisible guiding hand in politics.
Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar ordered in November an investigation into what he called the "illegal and unwarranted leakage" of tax information of the family members of General Bajwa.
"This is clearly violative of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the Law provides," the finance division said in a statement attributed to Dar, saying he had taken "serious notice" of the leak.
