Re: Family Gate Scandal
I’m an honest businessman: Arsalan Chaudary!
Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry, the son of Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, has once again denied allegations leveled against him by real estate baron Malik Riaz Husain and defended his businesses as legitimate and aboveboard.
“Whatever I have earned, it’s all black and white. I’m an honest businessman and I pay my taxes and I will prove this, God willing,” he told Shirin Sadeghi of The Huffington Post, adding that he has never bribed or blackmailed anyone. “My conscience is clear,” he said, “and by the Grace of God, with a period of time, I will prove myself.”
Chaudhry also denies knowing his accuser, Hussain. “I do not know this man, Malik Riaz, or his son-in-law, or his daughter. I never came across… never seen them in my life.” He says Hussain’s claims are rubbish because “Nobody can influence my father, the whole world knows this. If anybody thinks that being cozy with me can influence my father, they are totally wrong.”
On June 12, Hussain filed a statement in the Supreme Court claiming that some Rs. 342.50 million was paid over three years to Chaudhry, who was allegedly blackmailing him. The court has asked the attorney-general to verify Hussain’s claims and has charged him with contempt.
The 32-year-old Chaudhry dismissed the documents provided by Hussain to the court and media that chronicle alleged payments made by Hussain’s son-in-law and daughter to cover Chaudhry and his family’s vacations in London and Monte Carlo in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
“These documents have no authenticity,” said Chaudhry, adding that the trips were organized by his friend Ahmad Khalil—“a friend who ended up like a Brutus” but one he trusted enough “to not think anything of borrowing money from”—and Khalil’s cousin Zaid Rehman. (Khalil is also an associate of Hussain’s.) “I always paid back,” said Chaudhry. “I paid [Khalil] and I told him that if there are any other payments to be made from my side, please let me know. He said ‘no.’”
Chaudhry, a newlywed, was also offended by insinuations about him and a female companion who accompanied him and Khalil on their 2010 Monte Carlo trop. “That’s totally rubbish and bull****,” he said of the companion, who is Khalil’s wife. “She’s like a sister.”
Citing unspecified security threats, Chaudhry had asked the court for protection. He now lives in Balochistan House in Islamabad, away from his parents. “I’m very proud of my father for this,” he says of the chief justice banishing him from their common home, “I will only go back home if I clear myself.” Chaudhry continues: “If I cannot clear myself, I have no right to go and meet such an honorable person, a person with such a feeling of justice.”
Hussain, the founder of Bahria Town, Pakistan’s largest private real estate company, was not available for comment. The court has imposed a gag order on him.
‘I’m An Honest Businessman’](http://newsweekpakistan.com/scope/1365)