Rana Shamim signed affidavit at Nawaz Sharif’s office, confirms solicitor

ISLAMABAD: Charles D. Guthrie — the London-based solicitor who had notarised former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice Rana Shamim’s affidavit — has confirmed that the document was notarised at Nawaz Sharif’s office in London, ARY News reported.

This was revealed in an audio released by journalist Irfan Hashmi in which Guthrie can be heard talking about Shamim’s affidavit.

The solicitor said the affidavit was notarised at Nawaz Sharif’s office and he could not review the document in detail as there were many people present on the occasion.

“After reviewing the document cursory, it was attested,” Charles D. Guthrie was quoted as saying in the video released by the journalist.

The solicitor further said that due to the presence of several people around him at the time of signing, he assumed that the document is so much important and it is about Nawaz Sharif.

Journalist Irfan Hashmi said the forensic experts confirmed that audio is authentic and it is not tempered.

Background

Former CJ Gilgit Baltistan Rana Shamim had claimed that former CJP Saqib Nisar had asked a high court judge to keep Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif in jail till the 2018 general elections.

He claimed that he heard the conversation when the former CJP was visiting GB before the 2018 elections.

Saqib Nisar, however, rejected the claim and said that the allegations against him are far away from reality and termed it as a lie.

The former top judge said, “Rana Shamim asked me for extension of his tenure as CJ GB, which I didn’t approve.” Nisar said Rana Shamim complained once against not giving him an extension.