Rana Shamim signed affidavit at Nawaz’s London office, says notary in leaked audio

ISLAMABAD: Charles D. Guthrie, the London-based solicitor who certified and stamped former chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Justice (R) Rana Shamim’s affidavit, has confirmed that the document was notarised at Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif’s office in London.

The development was revealed in an audio released by journalist Irfan Hashmi in which Guthrie can be heard talking about Shamim’s affidavit. The audio evidence has been forensically analysed by Joseph Naghdi, UK’s top forensic expert, who declared it to be “genuine, unadulterated, wholesome, and unedited.”

“I, Joseph Naghdi, confirm that the audio recording “Voice 001.m4a’ is genuine, unadulterated, wholesome, and unedited. The examined audio waveform does not indicate any tampering or edit in its audio stream,” confirmed Mr Naghdi.  

The forensic inspection further proves that the audio conversation did in fact take between Mr Guthrie and the reporter himself.

According to a report, the affidavit was notarised at an office in Marble Arch, London, adding that the office belonged to Flagship Developments Limited, of which Sharif’s son Hasan Nawaz is a director and where top PML-N leaders often hold their meetings.

In the five audio clips, Charles Guthrie can be heard confirming that Rana Shamim was indeed present at Marble Arch. “The judge guy was in Nawaz Sharif’s office.” When asked in the audio “That was which office? Like here in London?”, Guthrie responds “Marble Arch.”

In the audio clip, Guthrie was further asked: “He was in Nawaz Sharif’s office? They were like quite cozy when they were in there?” To that, the notary replied “Very… yeah.”

In the audio, Charles Guthrie also said: “That is one of his mates you know what I mean. When Nawaz Sharif was Prime Minister “I will make you the head judge in Pakistan and that type of thing.”

Another startling revelation that the Notary made was that he has never read the documents. “The affidavit was notarised at Nawaz Sharif’s office,” the notary said, adding he could not review the document in detail as there were many people present on the occasion.

In the affidavit highlighted in a report published by the News, Rana Shamim stated that Nisar during his visit to Gilgit Baltistan made a call to an Islamabad High Court judge and asked him to ensure that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz are not released on bail before July 25, 2018 general elections.

Nisar had denied the allegations and said that the claims were “absolutely untrue”. In a court hearing on Dec 7, Justice Rana Shamim had confirmed the contents of the document but said that he had neither circulated nor shared the affidavit with anyone. On directions of the court, Rana Shamim has submitted the affidavit in the court — more than a month after it first came to light.