Moving a petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday, two journalists urged the apex court to form a commission to look into the alleged disbursement of money by real estate tycoon Malik Riaz among media persons.
Anchorpersons Hamid Mir and Absar Alam filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution making federation of Pakistan through Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Bahria Town (Pvt) Ltd. Malik Riaz Hussain, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Federal Investigation Agency respondents.
The petitioners requested the court to direct FBR to produce the assets and income statements of all media persons. The court was also urged to ask Malik Riaz to appear along with proof of all the persons - journalists, military officials, bureaucrats and others - who tried, directly or indirectly, to buy favours from him. Both the petitioners also pleaded that the FIA should be directed to find out those who made fake or genuine lists of media persons public on social media. "There should be an impartial investigation into why the huge scam of Rs 640 million has been hushed up by the Anti-Corruption department in the province of Punjab," they added.