LONDON: Charles D. Guthrie, the London-based solicitor who notarised the notorious affidavit of former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice Rana Muhammad Shamim, confirmed the document was notarised at the office of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif in London.
This was revealed in an audio released by journalist Irfan Hashmi in which Guthrie can be heard talking about the affidavit.
Guthrie said the affidavit was notarised at Sharif’s office but disclosed he could not review the contents of the document in detail as there were many people present on the occasion.
“After reviewing the document cursory, it was attested,” Guthrie was quoted as saying in the video released by Hashmi.
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 important and that it is about Sharif.
Hashmi said the forensic experts confirmed that the audio is authentic and is not tempered.
Shamim had claimed that former top judge Saqib Nisar had asked a high court judge to keep Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif in prison until 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.
He said: “Rana Shamim asked me for extension of his tenure as CJ GB, which I didn’t approve.” Nisar said Shamim also complained once against not giving him an extension.
