A sensitive case

Thorough investigation, a must

While the issue of a new body to investigate the case of Arsalan Iftikhar is yet to be decided, another serious allegation has been leveled against Arsalan in a report published on Friday in a national daily. It has been alleged that Arsalan had been using the official address of the Chief Justice House, Islamabad, for commercial purposes. If correct, this would give birth to a host of suspicions about the motives behind using the address for conducting business.
When Malik Riaz publicly made allegations against Arsalan, he said things that were meant to cast aspersions on the CJ and the SC. The financial transactions and activities of Arsalan have therefore to be properly probed. There should be nothing that creates the perception of favor being extended to him. After allowing the lawyers to debate the various options available, the SC bench directed the AG “to set the machinery of the state in motion so that all those who may have committed any illegal acts, including Malik Riaz Hussain, Dr Arsalan, Salman Ali Khan etc are pursued and brought to book with the full force and rigor of the law.” The AG asked the NAB chief to form a joint investigation team(JIT) to probe the case. Arsalan, however, expressed reservations about two members of the JIT maintaining that they were under the influence of Malik Riaz. The NAB prosecutor general has now told the court that both the members of the JIT have been taken out of the team, leaving the remaining three members, all belonging to NAB, to investigate the matter. He said NAB could even disband the JIT and give the task to another investigating agency if the court so desired.
It is now for the court to decide how to get the enquiry conducted. Referring to Malik Riaz’s statement that he did not get any relief whatsoever in his cases from the SC, the bench had last month maintained that this was sufficient to settle the question of public importance. It was also maintained that the court’s reputation cannot be considered to have been tarnished on account of the alleged misconduct of the relatives of judges, since such relatives are not officers of the state. The reports regarding Arsalan’s Rs 900 million worth of assets having been accumulated within less than five years and his allegedly using the address of the CJ House for conducting business transactions are matters that can rouse suspicions if not probed carefully. The cases of financial misdoings on the part of powerful politicians or their scions were probed by FIA, NAB and ANF. Arsalan’s case too could similarly be handed over to either the FIA or NAB.