The embarrassment and bad repute Arsalan iftikhar has caused his father is nothing new. The list of his shady activities stretch way back and his life has been an odd mix of both humor and horror for anyone keeping an eye out, and has been one large stain on his father’s otherwise populist appeal.
Case in point is the recent humiliation he (and in turn his father) faced over breaking a queue at Jeddah airport:
His bizarre journey of Public Service:
Arsalan Iftikhar is a bona fide medical doctor. And while this fact is not a secret, what is a secret (or at least was supposed to be) is that he passed his matriculation exam with only 639 marks, which amounted to a C grade. The threshold for admission was 750 marks. In a country with a very limited number of medical seats and a very large pool of aspiring candidates, the admission of Iftikhar into Bolan Medical College in Quetta was suspicious, to say the least.
However, what made the matter worse was when he was appointed Medical Officer/Demonstrator in the Institute of Public Health, Quetta almost immediately after his graduation from the medical college (22 June 2005). Less than a month later, Dr Iftikhar was also promoted on the order of the then Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Despite the promotion, his dalliance with the field of medicine did not last much longer as he was transferred on federal orders to the FIA as an Assistant Director. The transfer and his training as an ASP became ground for the then government to make moves against the Chief Justice, and the first in a long chain of the good doctor’s storied lifestyle.
Dr Arsalan needs to realise you have to work to get a free pass to harass people on ethnic grounds.
That time he ‘sa-crood’ Malik Riaz:
“Luxury flats in London, hotels in Park Lane and gambling debts in Monte Carlo: rarely has corruption and influence-peddling in Pakistan been more embarrassingly laid bare than in the documents presented to the country’s supreme court,” reads a June 2012 The Guardian report.
In the summer of 2012, property tycoon and Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz dropped a major bombshell when he revealed he had been bankrolling the luxurious playboy lifestyle of Dr Arsalan in exchange for promises of using his influence with his father to get Riaz information about cases related to his vast property empire.
On the first trip, in the summer of 2010, a three-bedroom flat was rented in Portman Square for a month for £40,000, and a luxury Range Rover was hired for transport around town. After the treatment it can only be assumed that Arsalan began calling the Bahria Town owner “Uncle Riaz.”
The party made a four-day side-trip to Monte Carlo where Iftikhar gambled in the casino of the Hotel de Paris. And if gambling in Monte Carlo was not enough, the party accompanying him was later alleged to have included professional jail bird and part time model Ayyan Ali.
The two may have had a falling out over who got to be Theo Wilkins and who had to be Paul Mason when they reached Monaco
And while the Doctor would like to imagine himself a Danny Ocean reincarnation, his trips to Monte Carlo on Riaz Uncle’s dough have been less than successful where he lost his wealthy benefactor €10,000 (£8,800) in cash. And while he would have loved to have his father take Suo Moto action against the reverse-heist, Monaco tends to fall somewhat out of his jurisdiction.
Dr Arsalan seems to have lost a number of bets despite being accompanied by money handling expert Ayyan Ali.
His ‘honourary’ appointment to the Baluchistan revenue board:
Arsalan Iftikhar seems to be a magnet for not only controversy but also for high profile posts. Despite his complete lack of experience, his fields of work had up until then only included medicine, police service and gambling, the Balochistan government thought it prudent to appoint him Vice Chairman of the Baluchistan Investment Board in 2014.
Then Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch was adamant throughout that the appointment had not been made on the request of or to please the Chief Justice. The only remaining explanation then is that it was just the CM looking out for another graduate of the Bolan Medical College, especially considering the sizeable gambling debts Dr Arsalan had incurred in Monte Carlo.
Does anything really have to be said when we have this picture of his smug smile?
His feud with Imran Khan
Every now and then the universe conspires to bring together two such people in that the world cannot help but sit back and watch as the drama unfolds. So when PTI chairman Imran Khan accused in Arsalan’s father of being part of rigging in the 2013 elections, the world just couldn’t believe its luck when the Doctor bit back. Arsalan, in a totally original and never before made political allegation, accused Imran of not being “honest and trustworthy” as required by Articles 62 and 63 for a representative of the people.
While the feud has quieted down for the time being, Arsalan has also revealed his intentions to contest Imran’s NA 56 seat from Rawalpindi in the next general elections. And as we anxiously await the contest, most of us are hoping they’ll leave the public out of it and settle this in a steel cage. Because if precedent is anything to go by, which the Chief Justice would have to agree it is, the match-up would indeed be exciting.
What will Dr Arsalan Iftikhar do next? And exactly how many more times will we see that flash of regret in Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry’s eyes when his son does something silly or he has to make his way in life for him? Well, we’ll just have to keep watching to find out.