Pak army chief ’s family became billionaire in last 6 years

Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa's (pictured) family members and relatives became billionaires during his six-year tenure, making assets amounting to ~12.7 billion, a Pakistani website has claimed, prompting the government to order a probe on Monday into the “illegal and unwarranted” leak of their tax records.

The Factfocus website, which describes itself as a “Pakistanbased digital media news organisation working on data-based investigative news stories”, shared the alleged wealth statements of Gen Bajwa and his family from 2013 to 2021 on its page.

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 ~12.7 billion.

The report, released days ahead of Gen Bajwa’s scheduled retirement later this month, claimed that the assets of Gen Bajwa’s wife, Ayesha Amjad, went from zero in 2016 to ~2.2 billion (declared and known) in six years.

It stated the amount did not include residential plots, commercial plots and houses given by the Army to her husband.

The report also alleged that the total worth of the declared assets of Mahnoor Sabir (Gen Bajwa’s daughter-in-law) jumped from zero in last week of October 2018 to ~1,271 million on November 2, 2018, while the assets of Mahnoor's sister Hamna Naseer went from zero in 2016 to “billions” by 2017.

Furthermore, the tax returns of Sabir Hameed — the Army chief's son's father-in-law — were less than a million in 2013 but “in the coming years, he became a billionaire”, the website claimed.

On Monday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar ordered a probe after the tax and wealth details of Gen Bajwa's family members were released online by the website.

Dar took notice of the “illegal and unwarranted leakage of tax information of the family members of General Bajwa”.