Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has heeded the counsel of Attorney-General Irfan Qadir that was based on a clear legal compulsion and dissociated himself from the case of alleged corruption against his son, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, leaving it to a new bench to hear the case and pronounce. A day earlier on Wednesday, though, he appeared determined to head the three-member bench he had constituted for the purpose, affirming his commitment to uphold the law and show no quarter whatever to the accused if found guilty. The Chief Justice vowed that he would go to any length to defend the honour of the court. Indeed, considering the long list of suo moto notices that Justice Chaudhry has issued in the recent past in cases where grave wrongs appeared to have been committed, it was morally binding on him to take a similar notice of the talk of the town about the alleged corrupt practices his son had indulged in involving an amount of between Rs 300 and Rs 400. But, had he insisted on hearing the case, it would have been contrary to the principle he had himself laid down.

At the Thursday hearing, two private TV anchors who had been called to the court to depose what the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz had told them about Arsalan, produced a plethora of information that tended to implicate him in dealings which would raise serious questions about his probity. According to the counsel of Malik Riaz, he could not present himself before the court since he was under medical treatment abroad. The anchors could not present written evidence to prove the point because, they maintained, Malik Riaz of the Bahria Town had only shown it to them but refused to hand over. It included details of free foreign trips, stay, shopping and instances of other corrupt practices – all at the expense of Malik Riaz and family. To an anchor’s question, which he had put to Malik Riaz about what benefit he had taken in return for these favours, he had replied that so far he had taken none as 42 cases were lying pending against him in the court. The Bahria Town chief’s version of events is yet to be heard.
There is little doubt that the Supreme Court, which has been fearlessly taking up cases of corruption and malpractices committed by the government or its agencies and disposing them off with impartial verdicts, would live up to this tradition by showing the same spirit in pursuing the case against son of its own Chief Justice.