Calibri font spells trouble for Maryam Sharif

Maryam Nawaz used the font Calibri to draft her papers, supposedly in 2006, but the font was not available for public use till 2007.

The Joint Investigation Team’s probe into revelations in the Panama Papers leaks related to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family took a fresh twist as its final report referred to an unusual font in Maryam Nawaz’s documents.

Maryam Nawaz speaks to media after appearing before the Joint Investigation Team in Islamabad on July 5, 2017. (Reuters)

The JIT declared the documents submitted by the prime minister’s daughter — considered his political heir — were forged as the font used in them, Calibri, was not available for public use at the time the documents were drafted in 2006.

The JIT sent the papers to the Radley Forensic Document Laboratory, London. The laboratory’s expert, Robert W Radley, identified the font as Calibri.

“Calibri was not commercially available before January 31, 2007 and as such, neither of the originals of the certified declarations is correctly dated and happens to have been created at some later point in time,” The Express Tribune quoted him as saying.

However, Maryam Nawaz rejected the JIT report in a tweet: “Every contradiction will not only be contested but decimated in the Supreme Court.”

(With agency inputs)