Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday called Sharif family ‘Sicilian mafia’ after news report claimed that former top judge of the Gilgit-Baltistan High Court Rana Shamim’s affidavit against the ex-chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was notarised at the office of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

“The latest developments have once again exposed the Sharif family to be the Sicilian mafia. Just like a mafia, they possess the power to blackmail the courts and institutions,” he said on Twitter.

Fawad also shared the screenshot of a The Express Tribune story that quoted Charles D Guthrie — the London-based solicitor who had notarised Shamim's affidavit — as saying that the document was notarised at an office in Stanhope Place in Marble Arch, London.

Guthrie claimed that the office belonged to Flagship Developments Limited, a company owned by Hasan Nawaz, and where meetings of the top PML-N leadership often take place.

“In the evidence, Guthrie has confirmed three times that Shamim was present at Marble Arch,” the story claims, implying that Rana Shamim was a close confidante of Nawaz and family.

Fawad and other Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders who had long maintained that Rana Shamim was acting on PML-N’s behalf, see this report as a validation of their stance.

Following Fawad, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari also tweeted the same report, saying the Sharifs “just cannot move beyond trying to thwart justice through buying influence or physically attacking” the Supreme Court.

“From the assault on SC to calls to Justice Qayyum to this latest affidavit saga, it's a repeated story of corruption on all fronts!” she added.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on December 26 2021.