Arsalan Iftikhar case: Chief justice’s son asks for review of court decision

Expresses mistrust in AG; requests inquiry by a judicial officer.

ISLAMABAD:

Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, filed an application before the Supreme Court on Friday seeking a review of its earlier order in the suo motu notice of allegations against him.

Expressing mistrust in the Attorney General Irfan Qadir, Arsalan requested in his plea that a judicial officer perform an inquiry into the case instead.

According to Arsalan’s petition, the attorney general did not have the right to forward his case to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and in doing so, he did not follow the orders of the court. The petition was submitted through his counsel, Sardar Ishaq.

In the previous hearing, the apex court had asked Qadir to investigate the case revolving around allegations of a business deal between property tycoon Malik Riaz and Arsalan Iftikhar.

Arsalan’s petition states that the attorney general deliberately attempted to influence the inquiry procedure by misinterpreting the court’s judgment.

Earlier, Qadir had written a letter to the NAB chairman asking him to conduct an investigation into the case after the court had ordered him to take action.

Initially, the NAB chairman was reluctant to probe the issue, claiming that the matter did not come under NAB’s ambit. Later, on the attorney general’s order, a joint investigation team was constituted for an investigation.

In response to this move, Arsalan wrote a letter to the NAB chairman warning him not to become a puppet in the matter.

Arsalan’s review petition also carries excerpts of an earlier letter.

Arsalan mentions Qadir’s profile and history of his cases announced by the Supreme Court against his illegal appointments and alleges that Qadir is biased due to his rivalry with his father, the chief justice.

He added that Qadir will leave no stone unturned in falsely accusing him in order to settle personal scores.

The petition alleges that there is no provision in the NAB Ordinance under which NAB authorities can take action and there is no single provision that would authorise the NAB chairman to constitute and select members of such a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on his own.

In his petition, Arsalan claims that JIT officials are handpicked by Malik Riaz.

Arsalan said that the court has left him entirely at the mercy of completely hostile state machinery. “The FIA and Islamabad police are directly functioning under the supervision of Rehman Malik, whose membership in Senate has recently been suspended by the Supreme Court,” he said, adding that an inquiry process under these circumstances cannot be transparent.

He said that it was a well-cooked conspiracy against the judiciary and his father for ulterior motives, adding that Riaz called him a “Don” who runs the judiciary.

He also attached the script of the infamous Dunya TV interview, adding that it was planted.

“The drama was staged on baseless and concocted stories, which otherwise has absolutely no substance, therefore, despite a lapse of so many days absolutely no progress has been made by any agency,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2012.