Malik Riaz challenges Suddle’s authority

Bukhari says his client will not be appearing before Suddle until court gives decision on review petition.

ISLAMABAD:

Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz has decided to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision of appointing federal tax ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle as a one-man inquiry commission ordered to conduct probe into alleged financial impropriety between Arsalan Iftikhar and Malik Riaz’s son-in-law, Salman Ahmed.

The division bench headed by Justice Jawad S Khwaja had vested Suddle with the powers of a magistrate on August 30, with the responsibility of inquiring into allegations that the chief justice’s son had received Rs342 million from Riaz to influence judicial proceedings, and to present a final report within 30 days.

However, mirroring Arsalan Iftikhar’s review petition of the Supreme Court’s order of June 14 which had resulted in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) being told to cease its investigations into the case and the Suddle commission being formed in the first place, Riaz and his counsel Zahid Bukhari decided to file a review petition as well against the August 30 court order that appointed Suddle, on the grounds that he has prior affiliations with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his family, and that the two are on amicable terms because of Suddle being the former Inspector General of Balochistan.

Bukhari categorically said that his client will not be appearing before Suddle until the court gives a decision on the review petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2012.