Supreme Court reserves ruling in Arsalan Iftikhar case

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has reserved its ruling on the review petition filed by Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The judgment is expected to be announced in a day or two.

He challenged the court’s June 14 order regarding the controversy relating to allegations of a corruption worth Rs342 million between him and property tycoon Malik Riaz.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja resumed the case on Tuesday and reserved the ruling after hearing all parties.

The chief justice had taken suo motu notice and had summoned his son and former chief of the Bahria Town after media reported that Dr Arsalan Iftikhar had received between Rs 300 and Rs 400 million from property tycoon to influence judicial proceedings.

During the today’s hearing, Sardar Ishaq, the counsel for Dr Arsalan Iftikhar said that Malik Raiz was an influential person in the capital and could influence the investigation.

The lawyer requested the court that a judge should be tasked to inquire about the allegations leveled against his client.

Upon which, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said that should the court call someone from abroad if Ishaq didn’t have trust on anyone.

In reply to this, the lawyer said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was an objective organization but the chairman of body couldn’t carry an impartial probe in this specific matter.

Zahid Bokhari, the counsel for Malik Riaz, said that Advocate Ishaq failed to produce the evidence to support his allegations against NAB. Moreover, he said that chairman NAB was not obliged to respond to every single notice addressed to him.

He raised a question whether chairman NAB should respond to a letter in case if he has been verbally abused in it.

Later, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar spoke to the media saying that he wanted to transparent inquiry of the matter. He looked unsatisfied with the joint investigation team, saying that he had reservations regarding how the team was constituted and how the members were selected.

Dr Iftikhar said that the way Riaz’s son-in-law, Salman Ahmed, had sent out a text message claiming that he was facing security threats in Pakistan was incorrect and that he did not even recognize Ahmed by face.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=31602

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Aug 28 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.