LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has provided the income and wealth tax returns of Ahad Khan Cheema and his blood relatives to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to facilitate the latter in a corruption scandal in Punjab.
FBR officials disclosed that the NAB had asked the board to provide the tax returns details of the family members of Ahad Khan Cheema including his wife Saima Ahad, sons Essa Ahad and Mustafa Ahad, brother Ahmed Saood Cheema, sister Sadia Mansoor and mother Nishat Afza. The officials said the NAB asked for the assets details of the Ahad Cheema family in the first phase. The data was collected from different field offices of the board in Lahore and Islamabad.
Commissioner Regional Taxpayer Office Unit-II (RTU-II) Asim Majeed, talking to The News, confirmed that the required record asked by the board was already submitted. “The record provided by the FBR is consisted of the wealth and income tax returns,” he said.
Another official privy to the development said that after family members, the NAB will look into the assets record of Ahad Khan Cheema’s wife Saima Cheema. Further, the record search would be expanded to the cousins of both Ahad Cheema and his wife, especially who got jobs in government departments. Additionally, those appointed and transferred to other departments on deputation will also be investigated to locate Benami assets of Ahad Cheema.
A senior official of the FBR said the board apprehended that majority of assets are likely to be parked as Benami by Ahad Cheema. It will be a difficult task for the board as well as the NAB to locate Benami assets.
Endorsing the FBR viewpoint, a NAB official said the data of the relatives of Ahad Khan Cheema has already been collected by the bureau. All such aspects of Benami assets and the assets of the relatives could be checked. He said the data submitted by the FBR was being investigated. However, it will require further investigation. An FBR official attached with the development said it is mandatory for every government official to file his wealth and income tax statements annually. However, officials involved in wrongdoings and corruption never declare their assets and income tax returns correctly. In Ahad Khan Cheema corruption case, it is believed that the majority of assets would be Benami. The NAB has to give details of all associated persons with Ahad Cheema at any point of time to locate Benami assets, he added.
Earlier, National Accountability Bureau Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal had approved filing of a supplementary reference against former LDA DG Ahad Cheema, an accused in the Aashiana Iqbal housing scam, as multiple assets owned by Cheema were unearthed during the probe. The bureau had accused Cheema of misusing his authority and awarding illegal contracts, which caused a loss of Rs 400 billion to the national exchequer.