(Sindh Tribune): ۔'
Bajwa family business empire grew in four countries in sync with Asim Bajwa’s rise in military
The growth of the Bajwa family’s business empire in the United States and later in Pakistan directly matches the rise in power of retired general Asim Saleem Bajwa, who is now chairman of the country’s massive China-financed infrastructure project and a special assistant to the prime minister.
Asim Bajwa’s younger brothers opened their first Papa John’s pizza restaurant in 2002, the year he went to work for General Pervez Musharraf as a lieutenant colonel on the military dictator’s staff.
Nadeem Bajwa, 53, who started as a delivery driver for the pizza restaurant franchise, his brothers and Asim Bajwa’s wife and sons now own a business empire which set up 99 companies in four countries, including a pizza franchise with 133 restaurants worth an estimated $39.9 million. Out of total 99 companies, 66 are main companies, 33 companies are branch companies of some of the main companies while five companies are dead now.
The Bajwa family’s companies spent an estimated $52.2 million to develop their businesses and $14.5 million to purchase properties in the United States, while Asim Bajwa and his department were encouraging Pakistanis to invest within their relatively undeveloped country. The businesses of the Bajwa family through different companies were named as Bajco Group.
Asim Bajwa’s sons joined the Bajco Group companies in 2015 and also started establishing new companies independent of the Bajco Group in Pakistan and in the United States after he became director general of ISPR and commander of the Southern Command.
Asim’s wife was a shareholder in all the foreign businesses from the very beginning. At present, Asim’s wife, Farrukh Zeba, is associated with or is a shareholder in 85 companies including 82 foreign companies (71 in United States, seven in UAE and four in Canada). The records of US state governments and other records related to companies show that some of these American companies (all jointly owned by Asim’s wife Farrukh Zeba) also have investments in real estate sector and own some 13 commercial properties in the United States including two shopping centers. Estimated current net worth of businesses and properties of these companies jointly owned by Farrukh Zeba stands at $52.7 million.
In his declaration of assets and liabilities signed in June as special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Asim Bajwa declared an investment of $18,468 (rupees 3.1 million) in his wife’s name. Asim declared that he and his wife have no “Immovable Property Held outside Pakistan”. Asim also categorically declared that neither he nor his wife have any “Business Capital outside Pakistan”. If in his declaration, Asim wanted to declare his wife’s investments in United States by writing Rs3.1 million in the column of “Investments”, he could never have written word “NIL” in the specific column “Business Capital Outside Pakistan”. Asim Bajwa, 57, is also now the chairman of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Family Background:
The six Bajwa brothers and their three sisters came from a middle-class family in a small town in Southern Punjab that was struck by tragedy while they were still young.
Their father, Muhammad Saleem Bajwa, a medical doctor, started as a government employee in early 1950s and then in 1960 joined Millat Hospital, a small private hospital in Sadikabad. Bajwa was shot to death on Nov. 25, 1976 while traveling on a Karachi express train
His family’s assets at the time of his death included a few acres of agricultural land, a house in Sadiqabad, shares in a pharmaceutical company, and some shops in the city. Their father’s brother had to help them pay for family expenses.
The two eldest sons, Tanvir and Taloot went on to become doctors like their father and practiced in different cities of Punjab. The third son, Asim joined the army in 1984. Two brothers Nadeem and Faisal came to the United States in the early 1990s after completing their education from Punjab University in Lahore. The youngest brother, Abdul Malik, 49, went to the U.S. in 2002.
Management of worldwide businesses through a parent company:
In 2007, a few months after Asim Bajwa’s promotion to brigade rank by the military dictator, the Bajco companies were brought under the umbrella of one parent company, Bajco Global Management LLC, which was registered in the United States and Pakistan (liaison office). The official documents of this parent company show that Asim Bajwa’s wife, Farrukh Zeba, is an equal shareholder in the businesses of Bajco Group along with his five brothers. Farrukh Zeba is a housewife with no known business experience.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, the organization which regulates companies in Pakistan, started deleting data of companies owned by the sons of Asim Bajwa from its official website after Fact Focus started this investigation. Fact Focus has maintained dated digital footprints of the record tempering by SECP.
In first week of August, Bajco Group website bajco.net went offline and later came online with a new interface and data. In the previous version of the website, the Bajco Group showed only 58 franchises of Papa John’s pizza restaurants in the U.S. and Canada and was not showing its investments in real estate.
However, the updated website had not acknowledged the investments of Bajco Group and its associated enterprises in Pakistan until Aug. 25. These enterprises include investments in the human resource and telecom sectors of Pakistan. The website was being changed often in subsequent days. A complete track of the website, the digital footprint can lead to reveal huge corruption & money laundering by the Pakistan army's General. As the old website still accessible via the internet archive Web Archive. Now the Bajco, according to the company’s new website, “has grown to become the largest privately held franchisee of Papa John’s International.”
Abdul Malik Bajwa, the president of the Bajco Group and brother of Asim Bajwa, stated on his Twitter account (@MalikBajwa) that neither Asim Bajwa nor the general’s sons are involved in Bajco.
Contrary to the claims, official documents obtained from the government of UAE confirmed that a son of Asim has an association with Bajco Group Companies in the UAE. Furthermore, Bajwa’s wife is an equal shareholder with his five brothers in the parent company Bajco Global Management and co-owns 84 foreign companies in the United States, UAE, and Canada. The names of other Bajwa brothers are Tanvir, Taloot, Faisal, Nadeem and Abdul Malik. So both the claims made by Bajco Group president were not factual.
After questions were raised about Bajwa’s family business empire, a campaign on print and social media was launched to connect those asking questions with India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Questions about properties of the former general’s family in the U.S. were termed as an attack on the CPEC project and a conspiracy by India, allegations with no basis in fact. Asim’s son specifically tweeted blogs and pictures portraying author of this story as working for Indian agency RAW and becoming part of India’s attack on CPEC.
Other than the residential properties bought by members of Bajwa family, Bajco Group also purchased and developed more than a dozen commercial properties, including two shopping centers from 2014 onward having total worth of $12.8 million. Bajco Group also has separate venture funding and international investment companies. Other than the name Bajco, companies with the names of Jalco, SB Global Investments, BRV Holding, and different companies with BRV names were established after 2012 under the umbrella of Bajco Group for investments in the real estate sector.
Other investments by Sons, wife and brothers of Lt Gen (R) Bajwa:
Three sons of Asim Bajwa — Muhammad, Eusha, and Azib — have direct and absolute ownership of companies in the sectors of mining, construction, marketing, real estate, beverages, fashion and cosmetic manufacturing and investments in Pakistan and three companies in the U.S which include two companies in the real estate sector.
Farrukh Zeba is also an equal shareholder in Bajco Group’s companies in Pakistan in telecom sector e.g. Bajco Telecom and Fast Telecom. Bajco Group has business operations in Pakistan but it hasn’t yet acknowledged it even on its new website.
The family also runs a Labor and Manpower services company in Pakistan by the name of Silkline Enterprises (owned by brothers Dr. Tanvir, Dr. Taloot and his son) which is also an associated enterprise of Bajco Group. This company was set up when Asim was commander of the Southern Command. Dr. Taloot’s son Ammar owns a public opinion polls and research company, Transcendent. Fact Focus couldn’t reach Tanvir and Taloot for their comments.
Independent of the Bajco Group, Asim’ three sons also own the following companies in Pakistan: a mining company named Krypton, a beverages company named Himalaya Waters (..Himalaya Waters..), fashion and cosmetics manufacturing and retail companies Emels Allure and Mochi Cordwaners, the marketing company Advanced Marketing, real estate development companies Scion Builders & Estates and Scion Builders LLP LLP LLP.
All these companies were set up after 2015 when Asim was either director general Inter-Services Public Relations (DG-ISPR) or was the commander of the Southern Command, a key position in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan. As DG-ISPR (The army’s media and public relation’s wing), Asim’s tenure was marred with multiple examples of curbing the press freedom. News channels critical to military’s political policies were shut down on cable networks (the only medium of distribution of channels in Pakistan) across the country. The strategy and techniques adopted to suppress press freedom during his tenure were witnessed for the first time in the country’s history.
Asim’s two elder sons, Eusha and Muhammad, also set up companies in the United States, which include Hyperdrive Solutions (set up in 2016 when he was DG-ISPR) and Scion Management Group (set up in 2018 when he was commander, Southern Command) and Scion Natura (set up in 2020).
His son Muhammad’s name also appears in the incorporation documents of three (out of total seven) Bajco Group companies in the UAE along with the name of Abdul Malik. These companies were set up in 2015 and 2016 when Asim was DG-ISPR and one company was set up in 2019 when Asim was commander, southern command.
Eusha’s name started appearing as “Authorized Agent” in the annual statements of five different Bajco Group companies in the U.S. since 2018. Before 2018, the name of his uncle Nadeem Bajwa appeared in the annual statements in the same capacity. Eusha is not shown as managing member in any documents of the companies owned by his mother and uncles.
Eusha purchased two residential properties in his name in the U.S. state of Ohio in June and August of 2018 when Asim was commander of Southern Command. Eusha, 32, co-owns companies in the U.S. and Pakistan but never registered himself with the tax authorities in Pakistan, according to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
Furthermore, Asim’s mother, Fazeelat Muaab, has for years owned 5,000 shares in Sharex Laboratories (out 108,852 total shares issued by the company). These shares were never declared with FBR, the record shows. Different members of Bajwa family used to acquire and surrender or transfer shares of Sharex Laboratories in the past. This pharmaceutical company is not mentioned in Fact Focus database of companies as members of Bajwa family possessed a little percentage of the total shares of the company.
Now the question is that are these military Generals above the law & they're not answerable to the public for their huge corruption?
Note: the story is taken from Fact Focus website.
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