ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has taken notice of a whispering campaign doing the rounds that property tycoon Malik Riaz had got his son Dr Arsalan Iftikhar involved in a business deal to influence a number of cases pending before the court against him.

The chief justice ordered his office to place the matter before his bench on Wednesday and issue notices to Malik Riaz and Dr Arsalan to appear before the court. Notice has also been issued to Attorney General Irfan Qadir.

The action was taken on a note by Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain stating that allegations were being levelled in TV talk shows that Malik Riaz, owner of the Bahria Town, had engaged Dr Arsalan, son of the chief justice, with a view to influencing the judicial process.

It has been alleged, the note says, that Rs300 to 400 million had been doled out to Dr Arsalan. Besides, expenses of his foreign visits were borne by the property tycoon to influence his father, the chief justice, by creating a soft corner for Malik Riaz.

Malik Riaz is facing a number of cases in the Supreme Court moved by a number of aggrieved persons who have accused him of grabbing large chunks of land and merging them into Bahria Town.

The matter is likely to be heard by a three-judge bench comprising the chief justice, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain at 9.30 in the morning.

Earlier in the day, a number of private television channels in their talk shows hinted at the development, with one popular TV anchor claiming the existence of alleged documents of such lavish spending.

Quoting Supreme Court sources, he also declared that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken notice of such reports, and had even instructed his staff to collect video recording of all such programmes in order to ascertain facts.

Another anchor said that according to documents, details of the alleged favours to Dr Arsalan by the property tycoon started in 2010.

Many attempts were made to contact SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain, but he was not available for comment.

Accusations of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar’s extravagant spending and shenanigans had been doing the rounds for a few days, with a web-based video programme and a couple of blogs claiming that the chief justice’s son had turned a multi-millionaire a few years. These reports claimed the involvement of a property tycoon who had been taken to the Supreme Court in a number of cases involving land scam.

However, last night one opposition politician, and later a television anchor went on air, claiming that the property tycoon behind these lavish spending was Malik Riaz.

There was mention of Dr Arsalan’s three trips to Europe in as many years, during which he stayed at an expensive apartment and spent millions of rupees, but according to these TV channels, the bills were paid by someone else.

At least one television programme indirectly tried to establish a link between favours given to Dr Arsalan and Malik Riaz’s cases before the Supreme Court. However, the anchor in this television programme also insisted that the chief justice and the apex court had not been influenced by any of these developments, and that the CJ had continued to administer justice in all the cases.