In what is being claimed as a conspiracy against the judiciary, the son of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has been accused of receiving millions of rupees and sponsored foreign trips for reasons yet to be disclosed.
Taking notice of the media reports, Justice Chaudhry late on Tuesday night issued notices to his son Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, Attorney General Irfan Qadir and a prominent property tycoon to appear before a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by him, today (Wednesday). Senior journalist Shaheen Sehbai has claimed that Dr Arsalan received up to Rs 400 million plus sponsored trips to London during 2009, 2010 and 2011 with credit cards to be used abroad by him and his family from the property tycoon. Sehbai made the revelation in an interview to Dr Manzur Ejaz, host of a programme ‘Washington Beat’.
Sehbai told Dr Ejaz that he had received this information from a “very credible source”. “The person who gave money to the CJP’s son has admitted to it. They have documented everything. The CJP’s son has also accepted receiving the money in his private gatherings and is even ready to go to jail,” Sehbai claimed.However, Sehbai said that the detail of the business for which this huge amount of money was given to the CJP’s son is still unknown.“A few years ago, former president Pervez Musharraf had accused Justice Iftikhar of misusing his authority to provide his son a job. So how can a job seeker become such a successful businessman in just a few years that people entrusted him with millions? Therefore, it is a planned conspiracy,” Sehbai said.
Sehbai claimed that the top leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party including Aitzaz Ahsan and Qamar Zaman Kaira and some senior journalists including Najam Sethi, Kamran Khan and Hamid Mir were aware of the whole matter but just could not ‘find courage to bring it up’.It may be mentioned here that senior journalist Ansar Abbasi on Monday wrote an article in the Daily Jang unveiling some parts of the scandal, claiming that it was a conspiracy against the independent judiciary.According to Sehbai, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was also among the few who knew about the ‘conspiracy’. – PT
