WASHINGTON: Primeau Forensics, a US forensic audit company, confirmed on Wednesday it had inspected an audiotape forwarded by a Pakistani television channel, but said it could not share details of its report with the media.

“It was a specific thing that we did for our client and we are not discussing it with anyone,” a company representative told Dawn. “We have no press release.”

He said the client, ARY News, had the report and “only they can share the details with others”.

A report released in Islamabad claimed that ARY News had asked Primeau Forensics to do a forensic analysis of an audio leak of the former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.

In this audio, two persons can be heard discussing cases against PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz. Reports in the Pakistani media claimed that one of the persons was Mr Nisar, the former chief justice.

Refuses to divulge details of its report

According to ARY News, the audit of this 45-second file showed two “reverberences” in the voice as the person spoke from two different locations. The voice was clearer during the last 20 seconds as it came from a closer range.

ARY News claimed that when it asked Primeau Forensics if the recording was of the original conversation or came from an edited tape, the company said the two parts of 20 and 25 seconds each were recorded in a different environment.

The company told ARY News that it believed “the unknown Fact Focus clip was generated from at least two different sources”.

They observed “two different reverberences, indicating that the first portion of the audio was likely recorded in a different environment than the second portion”.

Primeau Forensics is based in Rochester Hills, Michigan. A post on its website says that its experts have processed over 5,000 audio, video and image forensic investigations and provided expert testimony in over 500 cases in local, state and federal courts.

It claims to have 30 years of experience in this field, working for attorney generals of multiple US States, CNN, AP and other major organisations. ARY News claimed that it had paid Rs1 million for the audit.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2021