Islamabad court approves two-day physical remand of Bol News journalist in Bajwa’s data leak case

Islamabad court on Saturday approved two-day physical remand of Bol News journalist Shahid Aslam in Gen Bajwa’s data leak case.

Bol News journalist Shahid Aslam was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from Lahore earlier in the day for his alleged part in leaking the personal tax data of former army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Bol News journalist Aslam was presented before the court today.

His 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”.

His counsel 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.

The prosecutor countered that the evidence was on Aslam’s mobile phone and laptop, which he was not providing to investigators, and that Aslam played the “role of the facilitator” in the crime.

If found guilty, Shahid Aslam could face a 10-year jail sentence.

 

A report by investigative news website FactFocus published in November 2022 accused the army chief and his family of amassing assets worth Rs12.7 billion over the past six years.

The report published by the website FactFocus — which describes itself as a “Pakistan-based digital media news organization working on data-based investigative news stories’,  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 notice of the report, finance minister Ishaq Dar said that the leak was “clearly violative of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides”.