Questions for Dr Arsalan Iftikar only

Hardly a day passes when we Pakistanis do not get any sensational news which grips all of us just in one go. There are far too many fronts which attract us and I am pointing out some of them so that my view point can be understood easily without any confusion and ambiguity. Most of the time it is about political jugglery where one political leader opposes all the rest of the political leaders with tooth and nail and tries to prove that he is the only survivor for Pakistan then we hear about bomb blasts; drone attacks and target killings which are very common in any case and hundreds of innocent lives have already been lost and last but not the least come the scandals which again have different angles where both individuals and institutions are involved.

The latest episode is about the conflict between Dr Arsalan Inftikhar s/o Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry and Malik Riaz Hussain who is a certified real estate developer or may be the biggest real estate developer of the country. The issue has become so much explosive that on one side is Riaz and his Bahria Town while on the other side it is not only Dr Arsalan but even Supreme Court of Pakistan has been bracketed alike. The episode did not start today or yesterday or a month ago or even a year ago as one may think of but in fact it was some time during the year 2009 and since then it has been burning but its smoke and flames were controlled one way or the other but as everything has a limit so it could no longer be kept under the carpet and hence it had to be surfaced and now it can be rightly called as one of the biggest and dirtiest scandals in the history of Pakistan.

The worst part is that here none but Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Inftikhar Chaudhry has directly or indirectly been named and dragged into the said sandal which is very much regrettable to be honest. Undoubtedly Justice Iftikhar during the years has earned a very big name for himself by strictly sticking to the principles of justice and equity without caring least as to who is the plaintiff or defendant before him in the court of law which ultimately has been duly recognized and reckoned in judicial circles not only with in Pakistan but at global level as well and therefore it is very much shocking to read his name in the said scandal.

Malik Riaz Hussain who emphatically has no equation with Dr Arslan or even his father has alleged that he has spent nothing but Pak Rs 342,501,524 on Dr Arsalan Iftikhar on his overseas trips during 2009 to 2011 and there must be some truth if the not the whole truth about such expenses but very surprisingly Dr Arsalan categorically denies it and asserts that his trips have nothing to do with Malik Riaz since he has spent his own money on the said trips which again could be partially true if not in totality. Generally speaking in the 1^st instance none accepts of doing anything wrong howsoever small it may be though eventually someone somewhere accepts some wrong doing so from that point of view I opine that as of today neither Malik Riaz nor Dr Arsalan will change their statements and both will stick to what they have already spoken about. Malik will assert that he has spent money on Dr Arsalan and he in turn will maintain that it was his own money so the question of Riaz financing his overseas trips does not arise at all.

It will be quite futile on my part if I dig deep into the case which has already been taken up by Supreme Court of Pakistan but nevertheless certainly there are some very intriguing and baffling questions which need to be answered in any case and those relate to not only Malik Riaz or Dr Arsalan for that matter but his father Chief Justice of Pakistan as well. Much can be said about the three persons from different angles and perspectives but for the time being I will limit to none but Dr Arsalan Iftikhar only.

First and the foremost question is that just a few years ago only Dr Arsalan was a government officer (BPS 17 or 18) which means he has some fixed monthly salary which simply cannot turn him into a millionaire in any case from any set of imagination whatsoever. Then he started his construction business in Lahore which is quite legal business activity and of course through his construction business possibly he can earn more than what he earned as salary but then the question is how much he invested to start a construction company. It must not be forgotten that one needs quite sufficient money to open a construction company of some standard to grab some contracts but if the construction company has no standard and get up then it is very much doubtful that the construction company could win some contracts but at the same time the question is from did he get that money to float a standardized construction company? Moreover being in Islamabad he was living free enjoying all the comforts with his father in the official residence of the Chief Justice of Pakistan but being in Lahore it cannot be the same under any circumstances and he must be incurring pretty good amount on housing, food and transport etc but my question is as to how did he meet such day today expenses? It must be kept in mind that Dr Arsalan being with his parents had no expense at all whereas in Lahore he is to spend money not only on his personal living but also on running his construction company so what could be the source to get so much money? As regards his overseas trips my simple question is how he earned so much money in that too in just three or four years? Even for academic discussion if I accept that Rs 342,501,524 were spent by Dr Arsalan from his own pocket then my simple question is had he minted double of this amount in three to four years otherwise how could he spend such a big amount on overseas trips? What magic wand Dr Arsalan has to mint money alike? How could Malik Riaz get copies all the hotel bills and air tickets about Dr Arsalan overseas trips when Dr very categorically says that he used his own personal money on the trip? Who is the lady and under what relationship she had accompanied Dr Arsalan to London and Monte Carlo is my last question?