PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has said armed forces should clean their backyard and ask generals to declare their assets.

“Military lives and dies in Pakistan and if [the generals] shift their assets outside the country, what will be the level of the businessmen’s confidence,” said retired Brigadier Mohammad Musaddiq Abbasi, the special assistant to chief minister on anti-corruption.

Addressing a press conference at information department, he said that besides two families, names of some retired generals were also mentioned in Dubai leaks. He said that PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan was never mentioned in any leak.

Mr Abbasi said that after Dubai leaks, some people claimed to have declared their assets. However, he said that if the sources of income were known and the money was transferred illegally, it fell within tax evasion.

He also said that if the sources of income were unknown and the money was transferred outside Pakistan illegally, a case should be filed against the people under Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2012. He added that those involved in shifting money illegally outside Pakistan should be questioned so that people knew how the money was invested outside the country.

Talking about amendments to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws, the special assistant to chief minister said that the case was discussed with Imran Khan after the end of their government. He said that the former prime minister was told that NAB would become toothless after the amendments.

Mr Abbasi said they, referring to Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and other politicians, knew that the cases against them were genuine. He said that after the amendments, the voluntary return cases that were in the pipeline would also be closed.

He said that AML Act, 2012, was out of NAB’s ambit anymore and that it would provide relief to President Asif Ali Zardari in Rs7 billion telegraphic transfer cases. He added that after the amendments, a bureaucrat would only be questioned if he had something in his name only and not for the assets in the name of his family members and relatives.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2024