Rana Shamim affidavit issue indicates PML-N staged drama to influence court: Fawad

Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said the Sharif family had not denied the disclosure in the former Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) chief justice Rana Shamim case that the affidavit was prepared in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif’s office on its instructions.

In a tweet, the minister said, “Rana Shamim and the solicitor recorded the affidavit in Nawaz Sharif’s office.”

شریف فیملی نے رانا شمیم کیس میں اس انکشاف کی تردید نہیں کی کہ یہ حلفیہ بیان نواز شریف کے دفتر میں ان کی ھدایات کے مطابق تیار ہوا۔رانا شمیم اور سولیسٹر نواز نےشریف کے دفتر میں یہ بیان حلفی ریکارڈ کرایا،تمام واقعات ظاہر کرتے ہیں کہ یہ ڈرامہ عدالت پر اثرانداز ہونے کیلئے رچایا گیا

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 22, 2022

“All these events indicate that this drama was staged to influence the court,” he added.

Shamim’s indictment and affidavit

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) indicted Shamim in contempt of court case yesterday.

In a ‘leaked’ affidavit, dated November 10, 2021, Shamim had stated that the former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar, during his visit to G-B, made a call to an IHC judge and asked him to ensure that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were not granted bails before the general elections in 2018.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah took notice of the report and initiated contempt proceedings as Nawaz and Maryam’s case was still being heard in the high court.

Then, a news report published in an English daily ahead of the new year had claimed that Shamim signed the affidavit in the former prime minister Nawaz’s office in London.

According to the report, the ex-chief judge “took the oath and signed an affidavit in the office of none other than Mian Nawaz Sharif, trying to incriminate former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and honourable sitting judges of Islamabad High Court.”

The report said that as per the evidence available with the English daily, Charles Guthrie; a UK Solicitor confirmed that ‘Judge Guy’ was at ‘Marble Arch’.

Stanhope Place, Marble Arch was listed on Companies House records as one of the offices of Flagship Developments Limited, of which Hasan Nawaz Sharif is one of the directors, and it has been the central meeting point of PML-N leadership in London with Nawaz.