ISLAMABAD July 25: Following the refusal of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to appear before a joint team investigating a case involving him and property tycoon Malik Riaz, SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain also declined on Wednesday to appear before the JIT.

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 Faqir Hussain to appear before it on July 26 (Thursday) and July 27 (Friday), respectively, a senior NAB official told Dawn.

“Dr Hussain was of the view that he was a Grade-22 officer and he could not comply with the notice served by a Grade-18 officer (investigation officer),” the official said.

“On their refusal to appear before the JIT, fresh notices have been sent to both of them,” he said.

Dr Arsalan Iftikhar refused to appear before the JIT and expressed no-confidence in it. He termed the JIT biased. Earlier, he claimed that he had not received any notice.

“We had asked the IG Punjab Police to serve the notice on Dr Arsalan at his company’s address in Lahore and, therefore, a policeman delivered the notice on Wednesday,” the official said.

A servant of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, who told the policeman that his boss was in Islamabad, received the notice. Earlier he contacted his boss who asked him not receive the notice.

NAB spokesman Zafar Iqbal said the JIT met on Wednesday and examined the response from Dr Faqir Hussain, Salman Ahmed (son-in-law of Malik Riaz) and Ahmed Khalil (a business partner of Mr Riaz) and discussed the future course of action to ensure the recording of statements of Salman Ahmed and Ahmed Khalil.

“The JIT also considered the report received from the Punjab Police that Dr Arsalan Iftikhar had refused to receive the notice,” he said.

The spokesman said the JIT would continue to hold its proceedings on Thursday and discuss all matters, including intentional and continuous non-appearance of certain individuals.

The JIT agreed to provide a reasonable opportunity to all persons for personal appearance before taking any action to ensure compliance of Section 19 of the NAB Ordinance.