Karachi: The ‘familygate’, which is also becoming ‘anchorgate’, is one of the most important cases in the judicial history of Pakistan.

On June 6, Chief Justice Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took a suo motu notice against his son Arsalan Iftikhar and Chairman Bahria Town’s Malik Riaz, after reports littered news channels that Arsalan was given around Rs.400 million.

There are reports that at the time when the Supreme Court had summoned Malik Riaz with proofs the business icon was planning to escape from the country.

On June 6 when Arsalan Iftikhar appeared in the court, Riaz was missing. On being asked, his staff officer told the Supreme Court that he was not being contacted. Riaz was actually leaving Pakistan at that very moment. The ruling PPP and bureaucracy, according to the reports, are behind his escape to Dubai.

Malik Riaz is also wanted by NAB in a corruption case of Rs65 billion.

According to Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) record, at 1pm on that day, a plane landed at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, which had taken off from Lahore. A CAA official told The News Tribe (TNT) that the plane was owned by Riaz, with call sign ‘Bahria Town 001’. The Beechcraft B-114 landed on the airport’s Bay Number 64.

TheNewsTribe’s Karachi correspondent reported that before the plane’s landing, a Bilawal House official, along with two other men, was present at the airport’s apron area. Being a protocol officer, he was not a new face for intelligence agencies.

No one came out of the plane when it landed, and when Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Immigration Sub-Inspector reached the scene, he was told that the two persons would fly abroad without either an exit stamp or filling immigration card.

At first, the Sub-Inspector showed reluctance but finally toed the line. After the process was completed, the plane took off for Dubai at 1.50pm.

One of the two persons who were sent abroad in such an ambiguous manner was Malik Riaz, said an FIA official, who declined to be named.

The TNT correspondent added that on June 8, just after five minutes President Zardari’s plane landed in Karachi, the ‘secret’ plane also touched the airport’s runway, though there was nobody inside.

Now the Supreme Court is told that Riaz was abroad for ‘health’ reasons.

One of the top-notch property tycoons, Malik Riaz is said to have links with intelligence agencies and some media personalities.

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