Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has again accused senior civil servants of planning to settle abroad while still in government service, without naming officials or providing evidence of their alleged departures.
In an Oct. 18 post on X, Asif singled out Portugal and questioned the commitment of officials preparing to leave. He acknowledged that Pakistan's bureaucracy includes capable and honest officers, while alleging that others had held important posts under successive governments as they planned to move.
Asif also claimed that many officers had settled in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe in recent years. He accused an unidentified person of taking payments from bureaucrats to arrange residency and then disappearing. The post gave no names, payment amounts or records supporting those allegations.
The remarks follow a broader claim Asif made on Aug. 5, 2025. He alleged that more than half of Pakistan's bureaucracy had bought property in Portugal and intended to seek citizenship. That figure is unverified.
The News International reported at the time that unnamed sources at Pakistan's Establishment Division and National Accountability Bureau knew of no evidence supporting the property claim. Asif's latest post provided no count of officials moving overseas or records establishing their residency status.
