Pakistan court dissolves commission probing Chief Justice’s son

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday dissolved the one-member judicial commission set up earlier this year to investigate allegations levelled by a property tycoon against the Chief Justice’s son, Arsalan Iftikhar.

The decision to dissolve the commission came a day after the media was informed that Mr. Iftikhar had admitted to the commission that he had availed of two of the three foreign visits allegedly bankrolled by the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz.

According to the report, Mr. Iftikhar admitted that he had received “favours” from Mr. Riaz and his son-in-law. However, there were no details in the report on whether these favours were offered to get a favourable judgement in the cases against Mr. Riaz’s business ventures.

In June, Mr. Riaz had alleged that he had paid Pakistani Rs.300 million (approximately Indian Rs.168 million) to Mr. Iftikhar to influence cases against his business pending in the Supreme Court. Another allegation was that the businessman had picked up the expenses of Mr. Arsalan’s foreign visits and shopping overseas over the past couple of years.

The case had created a storm after Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry summoned his son to court as campaign regarding these allegations became louder. Amid criticism about him presiding over a court hearing allegations against his son, Justice Chaudhry recused himself from the case the following day.

The two judge-bench hearing the case then appointed a commission to investigate the matter which died down as the nation got caught in another political crisis over the ouster of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.