Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar has taken serious notice of the “illegal and unwarranted leakage of tax information” of the family members of General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), the Ministry of Finance tweeted on Monday.

“This is clearly violative of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the Law provides,” the ministry said. “In view of this serious lapse on the part of to-date unknown functionaries the finance minister has directed Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha to personally lead an immediate investigation into the violation of tax law and breach of FBR data, affix responsibility and submit a report within twenty-four hours.”

The ministry’s statement comes after a report published by FactFocus.com on Sunday night, a Pakistan-based digital media news organisation, claimed members of COAS Bajwa’s immediate family including spouse and children “started a new international business, shifted capital abroad, and bought foreign properties”.

The report, which claimed to have in possession the COAS’s tax records, alleged that Gen Bajwa’s spouse “became a multi-billionaire with large farmhouses in Gulberg Greens Islamabad and Karachi, multiple residential plots in Lahore, and commercial plots and plazas in DHA schemes”.

The report further claimed that “the General’s family started an oil business in 2018, Taxx Pakistan, headquartered in Dubai and expanded all over Pakistan within a few months”.

The report alleged that the “current market value of the - known - assets and businesses within Pakistan and outside accumulated by the Bajwa family during the last six years is more than Rs12.7 billion”.