The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its decision on an objection raised by the counsel for property tycoon Malik Riaz over the competency of the bench hearing the pending review plea against formation of the commission probing into the alleged Rs 342 million business deal between Riaz and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar. A three-judge bench of Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan and Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry resumed hearing of the review petition, questioning the appointment of Dr Shoaib Suddle to head the commission. At the onset of proceedings, Syed Zahid Bukhari, counsel for Riaz, raised objection to formation of the bench and said it was not competent enough to take up his plea. He said the previous two-judge bench which had been conducting proceedings should resume hearing instead. Sardar Ishaq Khan, counsel for Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, said the petitioner was not appearing before the one-man commission mandated by the apex court. He called such moves delaying tactics on part of the petitioner. After hearing the arguments, the bench reserved its decision. In his plea, Malik Riaz, had objected to a request of the commission for more time to probe into the matter. He had pointed out that Suddle was not represented in the matter, which was enough ground to dismiss the plea.
