ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in the federal capital on Monday sent journalist Shahid Aslam — who was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from Lahore for his alleged part in leaking of tax information of former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family members— to jail on judicial remand.
The court’s orders came after it rejected the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) plea seeking an extension in the journalist’s physical remand.
The agency had presented Aslam in the court of Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir after the completion of his two-day remand which the court had granted to the FIA on January 14.
Earlier on Saturday, Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir had announced the verdict — reserved a while back — and handed over the journalist to the Federal Investigation Agency on two-day physical remand.
It should be noted that the army chief and his family were charged with amassing assets worth Rs12.7 billion over the course of the previous six years, according to a report published in November by the investigative news website FactFocus. The website describes itself as a “Pakistan-based digital media news organization working on data-based investigative news stories.”
The report cited tax records and wealth statements of the Bajwa family to corroborate its claims about the alleged accumulation of assets by the family inside and outside Pakistan.
Taking a notice of the report, the finance minister had said that the leak was “clearly violation of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides”.
