The Wayward Son of Chief Justice: Dr.
Arsalan Iftikhar, The Flamboyant, Fun-loving Son of
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
07 August 2012By Saeed Qureshi
My reference is to Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar, the
flamboyant, fun-loving son of the incumbent iconic
chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
He keeps exuding an innocent, mystifying, and perhaps
mocking smile against all odds and afflictions that he
is faced with. Is he a moron or a carefree individual
or suffering from autism as to put the harsh realities
at the tip of his shoes? He is devious and brazenly
denies any wrong doing.
His face reflects a tinge of mockery or a disdain and
non-challant reaction to what was happening to him.
Because of his propensity for royal life with dirty
money, the sparkling reputation of his illustrious
father has been eclipsed. Of all the persons his own
son has joined the league of outlaws he is trying to
fix and bring to justice.
Malik Riaz Hussain the arch and inimitable
Machiavellian crook of Pakistan, made no bones in
revealing his largesse and slush money that he
willingly spent on this juvenile and incorrigible show
boy to ostensibly rope him for slandering his father.
His distinguished father is dispensing justice with
courage and conviction to mighty and low, to unsavory
characters and reprobate whose past time has been to
enhance their lives, fortunes and power, at the
expense of the people and the country.
There is always an "Achilles Heel" that humbles and
debilitates even the most invulnerable. That
proverbial weak spot was handy in the person of Dr.
Arsalan to help Malik Riaz Hussain and his ilk to plug
in an anti- chief justice tirade as if to explode a
bombshell in the crowded square. He disclosed that he
gave 34 crores in cash to Arsalan besides spending
another one and half core on his foreign excursion
tours.
Now this elephantine case being adjudicated by a bench
of leading justices seems to be losing its steam. The
dialogues that take place in court room between the
justices and the alleged felons and their counsels
looks like stage dramas. As a result, the essence of
the cases strays away and loses its punch and rudder.
What happens in a country like Pakistan is that even
the most proven and slam-dunk cases go awry and the
accused are exonerated because the witnesses go back
on their previous statements.
Ostensibly the poor and weak witnesses are either
bribed or threatened to change their statements by the
powerful thugs arraigned before the courts. The case
of PML-N, MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan and 15 others is a
testimony to this sordid game. A local court in
Islamabad acquitted the main culprit along with other
15 hooligans because the witnesses including the
police personnel changed their previous anti-accused
statements in favor of the felonious bunch.
In the wake of Arsalan's highly distinctive case,
Malik Riaz Hussain has been amending his previous
statement and stances. For instance he denied his own
claim that he has handed out big sums of money to the
leading journalists of Pakistan. As a cunning
businessman, he might have gauged that his sinister
plan to browbeat chief justice through his son went
awry. He now may even recalibrate his earlier
statement and even evidence that he ever tried to
blackmail the intrepid chief justice through his son.
He may even renege on the of-repeated claims that he
ever bribed Arsalan or sponsored his glamorous tours.
But would these retailored ploys and redrafted stances
would mollify the justices and they would accordingly
ignore his earlier statements and accept the lately
contrived as credible to release him from legal
noose? Ostensibly the whole episode when seen
objectively was to compel the chief justice to go
lenient on the gubernatorial cases pending against the
government functionaries and others, although the
chief justice is not made of mettle to be cowed down.
The entire insidious plot was carefully crafted aimed
at manipulating combustible court decisions with
regard to several prodigious cases. First the chief
justice's son was given enormous bribe besides
financing his costly foreign luxury tours one of which
was in Monte Carlo. The videos were meticulously
prepared and then the episode was deliberately
floated. Instead that the chief justice should have
budged, he issued a suo moto notice thus putting the
entire conspiracy in reverse gear.
Now Dr. Arsalan's lawyer Sardar Muhammad Ishaq Khan
have tried to rescue his clients by injecting the ploy
of procedural wrangling and raising certain objections
which might dilute or delay the verdict on the case.
Through a legal notice on behalf Dr. Arsalan, he has
questioned the impartiality and legal standing of the
NAB chairman Admiral (R) Fasih Bukhari to probe the
case. He alleged that the former naval chief and now
the head of NAB and his family have had close
relationship with Malik Riaz Hussain.
He has also objected to the role of the attorney
general, by pleading that he has overstepped his
mandate given by the Supreme Court by referring the
matter to NAB for investigation. He did so, the
counsel alleged, because of his bias against the Chief
Justice of Pakistan.
With such roadblocks created by the defense counsel,
the case might linger in for longer period of time and
consequently fizzle out. Several high profile cases
such as NRO and writing letter to Swiss authorities,
Memogate, the Hajj case, the rental power cases and
many others are caught up in the gridlock of
procedural formalities or delaying pretexts by the
accused parties.
However, in case of grafts and kickbacks, a receiver
should be held more culpable and liable than the
giver. A graft giver could be an honest person who
might be so hard-pressed and sternly blackmailed to
grease the palms of the manipulators to save his skin.
Malik Riaz, the erstwhile chairman of the fabulous
Behria Town housing project and otherwise a noted
philanthropist, might have, on his own or at the
behest of someone, entrapped and allured the young and
glamour crazy Dr. Arsalan. By offering huge amounts of
money to Arsalan the underlying objective could also
be to stigmatize the chief justice as not being
clean-handed.
Chaudhry Shujjat the president of PML (Q) in a recent
statement lauded Malik Riaz's various social and
humanitarian services one of which was paying Rs 13
crores as ransom money for the release of Pakistanis
captured by Somali pirates.
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EsinIslam.Com
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