LAHORE, July 3: Justice Sardar Tariq Masood of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday refused to hear a petition for restraining the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from investigating the scam involving Dr Arsalan Iftikhar and Malik Riaz.

The petition was fixed before a division bench comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Syed Iftikhar Husain Shah.

As the proceedings started, Justice Masood refused to hear the case on the ground that his brother, Advocate Muhammad Ishaq Khan, was counsel for Dr Arsalan. Therefore, he said, it would not be appropriate for him to proceed with this petition.

The judge referred the petition to the LHC chief justice for its fixation before any other bench.

A citizen, Amanullah Bhatti, filed the petition and contended that the matter did not fall under the purview of NAB Ordinance as it pertained to two individuals and had not caused any loss to the public exchequer.

He asked the court to set aside a joint investigation committee formed by NAB and direct the government to adopt due legal procedure for the investigation into the case.