Imran ‘satisfied’ with Bajwa’s reply on offshore assets, rejects resignation

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Friday refused to accept the resignation of his special assistant (SAPM) on information and broadcasting, retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, claiming he was “satisfied” with his aide’s explanation about his family’s assets.
Last week, a Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Noorani broke the news on the ‘Fact Focus’ website alleging that Bajwa had used his offices, since 2002, when he was a lieutenant colonel, in setting up off-shore businesses of his wife, sons and brothers.
Noorani provided documentary evidence of Bajwa and his brothers getting rich in the US and gave details of their pizza franchises and other companies in the US, the UAE and Canada.
After days of silence, Bajwa, a former director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing, responded by announcing his resignation as the PM’s aide on Thursday evening. He, however, vowed to continue to work as chairman of the over $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority.
In his clarification, Bajwa said he possessed all documents about his family’s assets and was ready to present them and the money trail before any judicial forum. “My resignation as SAPM is not linked to the questions about my family’s assets. It is because of the attention required by CPEC,” Bajwa told journalists.
“Prime minister Imran Khan has decided not to accept resignation of Asim Bajwa from SAPM (Info and Broadcasting) post and has given instructions to continue working,” Senator Faisal Javed posted on Twitter. According to local media, the PM further told Bajwa that he was satisfied with the evidence of assets and explanation that had been provided by the former military official.
In his defence, Bajwa further said that the news report about his alleged corruption had been filed to “tarnish my image” and claimed that his wife had divested herself of her shareholdings in foreign companies a few weeks prior to his declaration of his assets as SAPM and he had not “lied” on his declaration form.
In his official declaration of assets, according to the article published by Fact Focus, Bajwa did not record his wife’s ownership of shares in franchises of Papa John’s Pizza and other companies, including real-estate and marketing services. According to documents provided by Noorani, Bajwa’s wife Farrukh Zeba, is a shareholder in these companies.
Ever since the story of Bajwa’s family assets went viral, a campaign against Noorani and other dissident journalists has been run on the mainstream media, alleging that it was a conspiracy against CPEC by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).