ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: In an apparent balancing act, the Supreme Court accepted on Thursday a review petition of Dr Arsalan Iftikhar against its own order and at the same time granted a much-needed stay in favour of property tycoon Malik Riaz of Bahria Town.

Accepting the review petition a two-judge bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja appointed Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Mohammad Shoaib Suddle as a one man-commission to investigate allegations of a Rs342 million business deal between Dr Arsalan, son of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and Malik Riaz. The commission is required to complete the task in a month.

Dr Shoaib had earlier conducted an inquiry into the ISAF containers scam.

In a different courtroom, a separate two-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan stayed the proceedings of a land corruption case against Malik Riaz pending before a special court, with a direction that the accused should not be arrested till Sept 15.

The anti-corruption court judge had on June 21 issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Malik Riaz in a 1,400-kanal land fraud case.

Riaz is at present abroad for medical treatment.

The same bench directed the Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court seized with a dispute between the Anti-Corruption Punjab and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) over jurisdictional matters about land-related cases against Malik Riaz to dispose of the matter by Sept 15. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan represented the property magnate in his appeal before the Supreme Court.

The court entrusted the inquiry to Dr Shoaib after taking it back from NAB. The court ordered him to investigate the culpability of Dr Arsalan, Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Salman Ahmed Khan and all those who might be considered involved in criminal activities.

Dr Shoaib is required to specify legal provisions and offences, if any, which may be attracted in the case based on facts. He will also ascertain facts connected with or ancillary to the determination of the foregoing matters and to set the state machinery in motion so that all those who may have committed illegal acts could be pursued and brought to book with full force and rigour of the law.

On Tuesday, the bench had reserved its verdict on Dr Arsalan’s petition seeking review of the court’s June 14 order which asked Attorney General Irfan Qadir to look into the alleged business deal between him and Malik Riaz. Subsequently, the AG asked NAB to investigate the matter.

In his petition, Dr Arsalan had claimed that the court’s order contained inherent and apparent errors.

Authored by Justice Jawwad Khwaja, the ruling ordered NAB to hand over the entire record of the case to the one-man commission. The commission has also been authorised to exercise powers envisioned in the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, and of judicial officers.

It will be free to avail itself of the service of advocates, forensic experts and persons with relevant experience, including fiscal laws. The state functionaries have been asked to provide necessary assistance to the commission which will be authorised to collect evidence within and outside Pakistan.

The ruling criticised the attorney general for hiding the fact that he had appeared as counsel for Malik Riaz in the past and said the court would not have tasked him with any responsibility in this matter had he disclosed this.

Referring to AG’s June 18 letter to NAB Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari, the verdict observed that prima facie the bureau might have come under the influence of the AG.

The verdict said: “It is disturbing to see that the AG chose to write the letter to the NAB chairman for probing the matter by overstepping the remit of court’s June 14 order. Besides, there is a reasonable and well founded prima facie basis for the petitioner’s allegation that the AG did not act fairly and impartially.

“Since these are matters of serious concern to us and also would be to the AG as a member of our bar, it would be in the interest of fairness and justice if he is provided an opportunity of hearing to explain his conduct. The office shall, therefore, create a file and issue notice to the AG.”

Referring to the role of SP (rural) Islamabad Faisal Bashir Memon, one of the members of the joint investigation team formed by the NAB to probe the matter, the court ordered that the officer be posted to the Islamabad Police Headquarters and asked the commission to probe his role.