ISLAMABAD: Although Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, appeared before the joint investigation team (JIT) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday but he reiterated his stance that the JIT team was illegal, DawnNews reported.

Arsalan Iftikhar had earlier verbally refused to record his statement with the JIT, but on Wednesday he refused to receive a notice sent by the National Accountability Bureau asking him to appear before the JIT on July 26.

But, the JIT which was set up on the directives of the Supreme Court issued fresh notices to Dr Arsalan Iftikhar and SC Registrar Faqir Hussain to appear before it on July 26 (Thursday) and July 27 (Friday), respectively, a senior NAB official told Dawn.

Today in the hearing, Arsalan reiterated that the JIT comprised of Police, the Federal investigation authority (FIA) and the NAB was illegal and he had reservations with it.

He said that he had already filed a petition in the apex court over his issues with the probe team.

He requested the probe team to grant him extension before he could record his statement.

He said that he had already filed a petition in the apex court over this.

Speaking to media representatives before the hearing, Arsalan said that Malik Riaz, former chairman of Bahria town, has filed false allegations against him.

“The JIT is biased; I do not hope the team to do justice in my case… I will not record my statement till the apex court announces its verdict over my petition against the JIT,” Arsalan said to the media persons after the hearing.