ISLAMABAD: Members of the cabinet Sunday censured Nawaz Sharif after a report claimed the notorious affidavit of a former Gilgit-Baltistan judge that accused the judiciary of bias against members of the Sharif family was prepared in the presence of the deposed prime minister London.
Charles Guthrie, the London-based solicitor who notarised the affidavit of retired Justice Rana Muhammad Shamim, said the document was notarised at an office in Stanhope Place in the British capital, The Express Tribune reported.
Guthrie said the office belonged to Flagship Developments Limited, a company that also employs Sharif’s son Hasan Nawaz as a director.
Stanhope Place is the same building where top Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, including Sharif, often hold their meetings.
According to the report, Guthrie indicated that Sharif was also present when Shamim signed the affidavit and took the oath. When asked if the two “were like quite cosy when they were in there [Sharif’s office],” Guthrie responded: “Very […] yeah.”
Responding to the development, ministers and members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party viewed the story as a validation of their position that Shamim was receiving orders from the top leadership of PML-N.
In a tweet, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said: “The latest developments have once again exposed the Sharif family to be the Sicilian mafia and how, like a mafia, they possess the power to blackmail the courts and institutions.”
راناشمیم نے جسٹس ثاقب نثار اور اسلام آباد ہائیکورٹ کے جج صاحبان کیخلاف حلف نامہ نواز شریف کے دفتر میں ان کے سامنے Notarise کرایا،نئےانکشافات نےایک بار پھر شریف فیملی کو سیسیلین مافیا ثابت کیا ہے کہ کس طرح وہ ایک مافیا کی طرح عدالتوں سمیت اداروں کو بلیک میل کرنےکی صلاحیت رکھتےہیں pic.twitter.com/MBPx0V1jpY
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) December 26, 2021
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib adopted a similar stance. In a tweet, he recalled that the fact that retired Justice Rana Muhammad Shamim remained an office-bearer of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was admitted by his own son on television.
رانا شمیم ن لیگ وکلا ونگ کے عہدیدار تھے یہ بات ان کا صاحبزادہ TV پر تسلیم کر چکا ہے۔ یہ بہت بڑا انکشاف ہے کہ اب Affidavit بھی نواز شریف نے اپنی موجودگی میں عدلیہ پر حملہ کرنے کے لئے تحریر کروایا ہے۔ اسی لئے تو انکو گارڈ فادر کہا گیا تھا۔
رسی جل گئی ہے مگر بل نہیں گیا https://t.co/XonhDCU9iE pic.twitter.com/BfZVPt2g7F— Farrukh Habib (@FarrukhHabibISF) December 26, 2021
This confirmed that the document — which was prepared in London — was written in Sharif’s presence to attack the institution of the judiciary, the minister observed.
This was the reason the court in a verdict against Sharif likened him to a “godfather of the Sicilian mafia”, Habib said.
“From assault on SC to calls to Justice Qayyum to this latest Affidavit saga, it’s a repeated story of corruption on all fronts,” tweeted Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari.
NS & family just cannot move beyond trying to thwart justice through buying influence or physically attacking SC! From assault on SC to calls to Justice Qayyum to this latest Affidavit saga, it’s a repeated story of corruption on all fronts! pic.twitter.com/5ifDjEFMiQ
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) December 26, 2021
The Sharif family “just cannot move beyond trying to thwart justice through buying influence or physically attacking SC”, she added.
In November, Shamim opened Pandora’s box claiming former chief justice Saqib Nisar did not want Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to be released on bail ahead of the general elections in July 2018.
The two were convicted in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference related to their ownership of four multi-million-dollar London apartments weeks before the elections on July 25. When their counsels moved the high court for suspension of the conviction, the case was adjourned until the last week of July.
Nisar had travelled to the mountainous region for vacations in 2018, an affidavit Shamim purportedly signed in London during a trip to the British capital last month, said.
On one occasion, the then top judge appeared “very disturbed” while speaking to the Supreme Court registrar on the phone, asking him to get in touch with a high court judge.
Once able to get in touch with the judge, Mr Nisar ordered him that “Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif must remain in jail until the general elections are over. On assurances from the other side, he [Nisar] became calm and happily demanded another cup of tea.”
The other judge was not named in the affidavit.
Earlier this month, the government placed Shamim on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), thereby barring him from flying abroad.
