Gen Bajwa data leak: Court grants bail to three FBR officials 

ISLAMABAD – A special court on Friday granted bail to three Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials in the case pertaining to the "illegal and unwarranted" leak of former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and his family members' tax information.

Special Judge Azam Khan directed the FBR officials – Shahzad Niaz, Arshad Ali and Adeel Ashraf – to submit the surety bonds of Rs50,000 each against their bail.

On Jan 18, journalist Shahid Aslam's bail plea was accepted by a local court in the federal capital in the same case.

A district and sessions court had handed over the journalist's custody to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on January 14 for a two-day physical remand.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had on November 21 last year taken notice of the "illegal and unwarranted" leakage of tax information Gen (retd) Bajwa's family.

"This is clearly a violation of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides," a statement from the Finance Division read.

A day later, Dar shared that he has received the interim report related to the leak of Gen (retd) Bajwa’s income tax records, adding that the authorities have traced some people involved in the act.