The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday decided to indict former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Appellate Court Rana Shamim and others on January 7 in a case regarding an affidavit, published in The News, Aaj News reported.

The report highlights an affidavit accusing former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar of influencing the case against former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz before the 2018 general elections.

The IHC had earlier warned that charges would be framed if the maker of the affidavit, Shamim, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Jang Group Mir Shakeelur Rehman, senior journalist Ansar Abbasi and resident editor Amer Ghouri failed to show it was executed and published for bona fide purpose.

Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan, journalist Ansar Abbasi, and Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Amjad Shah Advocate appeared before the court.

At the outset of the hearing of the case on Tuesday, presiding judge IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said that it was not a contempt of court case but a matter of the court’s accountability, adding that the court was presenting itself for accountability.

The high court registrar presented Shamim’s affidavit in the court. Shamim opened the original affidavit, which was submitted by his lawyer Lateef Afridi in a sealed envelope on December 20, the day of the hearing, on the instructions of the chief judge.

Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan said, “The court should be informed that where the affidavit was issued and who was there. [The respondents] will tell to whom the affidavit was leaked.”

Lawyer Lateef Afridi prayed the court to keep the affidavit as it was sent for them.

Ordering for again sealing the affidavit, the IHC CJ said that Shamim through his response was putting all the blame on the journalists.

PBC Vice Chairperson Amjad Ali Shah, who is amicus curiae in the case, said that those named in the affidavit should submit their responses so proceedings in the case could move forward.

“If the [is] PBC saying that whatever written in the affidavit is true so then you are casting doubt at every judge of the court,” CJ Minallah said, adding that the affidavit has made the court “suspicious.”

Presenting his arguments on the court’s instructions, lawyer Afridi said the affidavit was Shamim’s private document and the latter had signed it for his late wife. “My client did not leak the affidavit to press. Rana Shamim [had] also asked Ansar Abbasi how he got his private document,” he added.

The IHC CJ asked the lawyer who was the beneficiary of the affidavit. In reply, Afridi said he does not know that.

“We started these proceedings because there was a narrative that the court was compromised,” CJ Minallah said, “This court is making you accountable.”

Meanwhile, journalist Ansar Abbasi said that he had talked to Shamim a day before the report was published. “Rana Shamim told the court that he was approached after the story,” Abbasi said.

Later, the court set January 7 as the date for framing charges against Shamim and others and adjourned the hearing.

‘Indeed’ was alone at the time of notarising’

When a reporter approached Shamim outside the court to ascertain if he was alone when the affidavit was notarised, he replied with a firm "indeed".

A separate investigative report published in The Express Tribune on Saturday cited unspecified “evidence” and 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, adding that the office belonged to Flagship Developments Limited, of which Nawaz’s son Hasan Nawaz is a director and where top PML-N leaders often hold their meetings.