ISLAMABAD – The Accountability court recorded the statement of principalwitness in the Calibri font case against Maryam Nawaz Sharif.
The Radley Forensic Document Laboratory, Robert W. Radley statement wasrecorded Via video link.
In July last year, Radley had revealed that the type font used in trustdeeds of two companies, Nescoll and Nielson Limited, and CoomberIncorporation — that were submitted to a probe team that was investigatingthe Panama Papers case by Maryam — was Calibri, which was not commerciallyavailable before Jan 31, 2007, and, therefore, the documents which bore adate from 2006 appeared to have been actually prepared and signed on at alater date.
During the hearing today, Radley told Nawaz’s counsel Khawaja Haris that hehad received the copies of the trust deeds and other documents for aforensic examination near the end of June 2017.
According to Radley, it was evident that the copies of both declarationsthat he had been sent had been taken apart and bound again. He added thatpage numbers and dates had been changed in the documents as well.
The forensic expert said that he had met the Additional Deputy ProsecutorGeneral NAB Sardar Muzaffar and NAB Director Amjad Majeed Olak on Raja’sinsistence earlier this week, where they had discussed possible questionsthat might be raised in court during his testification.
Haris objected to Radley’s reliance on notes while giving the testimony,and asked that he submit a copy of the notes to the defence team’srepresentative at the Pakistan High Commission, where the testimony wasbeing recorded.
The forensic expert responded that it was normal practice in England to usenotes while testifying in any case and that he was ready to provide a copyto the representative.
Speaking about the use of Calibri font in the documents submitted byMaryam, Radley reiterated that the font was not commercially availablebefore 2007.
However, he said Calibri was present in the beta one version of WindowsVista that had been provided to IT experts for testing purposes.
When asked by Sharif’s counsel whether it was true that 10,000 people hadbeen using Calibri font before 2007, Radley said that those 10,000 had notbeen using the font; in fact they had been testing the software of whichCalibri was a part. The font became available for public use on January 31,2007, he said.
The hearing of the case was subsequently adjourned till Friday