Business tycoon and ex-CEO of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz's allegations on Arsalan Iftikhar, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is becoming a complex conspiracy with every passing day. Arsalan Iftikhar allegedly blackmailed Malik Riaz and took money from Malik Riaz's son in law. There are stories of how Malik Riaz paid for the expensive foreign trips of Arsalan Iftikhar to get favors from Supreme Court in return. These stories were shared with few journalists and when it became public, SC took suo moto notice of it.
Malik Riaz was summoned in Supreme Court, who after appearing in the court, held a press conference in which he accused CJ, his son, serving judges and many other people of having knowledge of the story forehand. Serious allegations were put on the judiciary and SC took suo moto again.
And now another fresh chapter of the conspiracy unfolds when a leaked video surfaced on the social video site, Youtube, showing two anchors, Mubashir Lucman and Mehar Bukhari, of Dunya TV scripting the questions and answers for Malik Riaz. During the video Mubashir Lucman received a call from Abdul Qadir Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan. Mubashir after speaking to him passed the phone to Malik Riaz who chatted with him for a while. It was also claimed that Mehar Bukhari received a text from Maryam Nawaz Sharif stating that they were offered a bullet proof car by the tycoon but the offer was declined by the Sharif family.
A call from the owner of the Dunya TV was received during the video in which he instructed the anchors to go over-time if required and do not interrupt the guest.
Supreme Court has taken a suo moto notice of the leaked video and has summoned record of Off-Air clip from PEMRA. CJ also asked PEMRA Chairman about the role of PEMRA and media regulatory framework. PEMRA Chairman said that the channels which violate law are issued notices and actions are taken when complaints are received.
SC has now directed Attorney General to pursue a case against Malik Riaz, Arsalan Iftikhar and Salman Ali who might have committed illegal acts and should be brought to book with the full force and rigour of the law.
To me one of the benefits that PPP government took from the timing of this case was to camouflage the MEMO GATE case. Most of Pakistani's are unaware that Mr. Hussain Haqqani is found guilty in the case but no hype was created because our media was feeding the transmissions related to Malik Riaz.
