Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s special assistant AS Bajwa resigns amid scandal

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on information Asim Saleem Bajwa, a retired lieutenant general, resigned weeks after a report his family business grew in the US, while he was serving in the army.

Khan “approved my request” to relinquish the additional post, Bajwa said in a Twitter post on Monday. He will keep working as the head of more than $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, also known as CPEC under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The premier had turned down his earlier request to resign after a report in August by Ahmed Noorani, an investigative journalist, that Bajwa’s family owned many franchises of Papa John’s International Inc. Khan had said he accepted Bajwa’s clarification that the expansion of his family business was not linked to his rise in the military.