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Thursday April 25, 2024

Judge Arshad Malik video: Pak HC in UK attests Nasir Butt’s forensic report

By Saeed Niazi
August 29, 2020

LONDON: Pakistan High Commission has attested Nasir Butt’s forensic report related to audio and video of former accountability court judge Arshad Malik, prepared and authenticated by a British forensic firm.

On Thursday afternoon, Nasir Butt visited Pakistan High Commission, London with four volumes of the forensic report along with an order from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for attestation of the report.

Nasir Butt, the central character of judge Arshad Malik video scandal, stayed in the Pakistan High Commission for over two hours and came out confirming to media that the forensic report had been attested and will be sent to Pakistan soon for presentation before the court during the next hearing of Nawaz Sharif’s Flagship and Al-Azizia cases.

Pakistan High Commission confirmed that the forensic report has been attested. Previously, Nasir Butt had visited Pakistan High Commission on four occasions but the High Commission officials had refused to attest the report stating that Pakistan Foreign Office had not permitted it.

Nasir Butt told media that he was thankful to Islamabad High Court for issuing orders in this regard. He said that judge Arshad Malik’s sacking by Lahore High Court is his vindication and confirmed that the allegations made against him by the government were false and baseless.

He showed copies of the forensic report prepared by digital forensic firm CYFOR, a specialist organisation providing services in the areas of eDiscovery and Digital Forensics with expertise in advanced data analytic and data recovery.

CYFOR has confirmed in its 43-page report that former accountability court judge Arshad Malik’s secretly recorded videos and audios are genuine, authentic and consistent with the original recordings.

Arshad Malik, the former accountability judge who convicted Nawaz Sharif in assets beyond means case, was secretly recorded as saying that he was blackmailed and put under pressure to convict the former premier and that he regretted convicting him.

The forensic report has already been notarised by Charles Drostan Guthrie, Notary Public, and attested by Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Nasir Butt said it’s unfortunate that Pakistani government did everything for one year so that the report could not be attested by Pakistan High Commission.

“This was done to deny justice to Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif was cleared on the day the video was released confirming that he was convicted under blackmailing. Allegations were made against me but the later events proved that I did nothing wrong by exposing a story of injustice.”