‘I never cried over Arsalan’s wrongdoing’

Rejecting media reports that he cried after seeing “evidence” against Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Pakistan People’s Party leader and senior lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said on Monday that he had only cried over the death of his mother and Benazir Bhutto. “In Arsalan’s case, I was only worried,” he said. Aitzaz said it was a personal matter of Arsalan and the SC chief justice had nothing to do with it. He said he had seen some material against Arsalan, but refused to comment in detail as the matter was in court.
Aitzaz said investigation into the allegations leveled against the chief justice’s son should be made so that the conspiracy, if any, could be revealed. He said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should not be termed responsible for his son’s personal matters. To a question, Aitzaz said the chief justice should not have sat on the bench hearing the case also involving his son. He said he tried to suppress the scandal for the respect of the judiciary and the chief justice, but a group of anchorpersons raised the issue and Malik Riaz would now have to appear before the Supreme Court in the case. Aitzaz advised Malik Riaz to avoid further fanning the issue. He said the PPP government had always respected the judiciary as the party leadership, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani were not commenting on the Arsalan scandal.