A district and sessions court on Saturday approved a two-day physical remand of Shahid Aslam, who was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from Lahore earlier in the day for his alleged part in leaking tax information of former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s family members.
Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir announced the verdict — reserved a while back — and handed over the journalist to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
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”.
During the hearing, the prosecutor said that Aslam was arrested by the agency yesterday. He added that the suspect was allegedly getting information from the Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan (FBR).
The prosecutor said that journalist Ahmad Noorani was providing information to Aslam which was being forwarded to foreigners.
Aslam’s counsel argued that the detention of his client was illegal, saying that there was no proof that Aslam “received any [leaked] information and had then passed it on to someone else”.
He urged the FIA to provide proof to support its claim to the court, adding that neither of the four sections in the FIR was valid and that his client could not be arrested just on the basis of suspicion.
After hearing the arguments, judicial magistrate Umar Shabbir approved a two-day physical remand of the journalist.
