ISLAMABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday decided to form an investigation committee to probe into the graft scandal involving business tycoon Malik Riaz and the Chief Justice’s son Arsalan Iftikhar, DawnNews reported.
NAB spokesman said that the decision to form the committee was taken after receiving the letter from the Attorney General Irfan Qadir.
The committee would comprise of officials from NAB, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), police and the experts from the banking sector, the spokesman added.
Sources have told DawnNews that AG Irfan Qadir has written the letter to NAB Chairman Fasih Bokhari in light of the Supreme Court’s orders. In his letter, Qadir had also recommended the formation of an investigative team based on honest officials of NAB, the FIA and police to probe the issue.
Chairman NAB Fasih Bokhari has already said in an earlier statement that the case does not fall within NAB’s purview as it is a matter between two individuals.
The NAB chief had said: “The Arsalan Iftikhar case is between two individuals and it has no financial implications on the national exchequer. It seems that it does not come under the NAB Ordinance, 1999.”
Former Bahria Town chief Malik Riaz had accused Arsalan Iftikhar of receiving Rs340 million from him on the promise of getting cases pending in the Supreme Court settled in his favour and in favour of his Bahria Town.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the scandal, and had announced its verdict on the case on June 14, calling on the government’s chief law officer to handle the controversy and initiate investigations.
“It is our expectation that he (Attorney General Irfan Qadir) will set the machinery of the state in motion so that all those who may have committed any illegal acts including Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Salman Ahmed Khan and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar are pursued and brought to book with the full force and rigours of the law,” a two-judge SC bench had said in its order.
