Now, Nawaz Sharif's daughter accused of 'Fontgate'; Twitter goes berserk

JIT probing Sharif family's role in Panamagate alleges Maryam Nawaz submitted fake documents

Maryam Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif
Maryam Nawaz with PM Nawaz Sharif. Photo: Twitter handle @MaryamNSharif
BS Web Team New Delhi
Last Updated : Jul 11 2017 | 8:26 PM IST
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz was in the midst of a raging controversy on Tuesday after the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Panamagate graft case against her family alleged that she submitted fake documents. JIT accused Maryam of presenting tampered documents on two 2006 declarations to the probe team. Interestingly, the font used in the documents pertaining to the year 2006 is "Calibri", which was not commercially available until January 30, 2007.
 
The JIT said Maryam Nawaz, her brothers Hussain and Hassan Nawaz, as well as her husband Captain Mohammad Safdar (retd), had signed false documents to mislead the Supreme Court.
 
The controversy

The members of JIT, after having received the documents from Maryam Nawaz, forwarded the documents to a British forensic handwriting firm which revealed that the ‘Calibri’ font used by Maryam in its documents had not been made available by Microsoft at the time. According to a report of Express Tribune, the font used in documents suggested that the 2006 declarations were fake and it is a federal crime.
 
Earlier, JIT in its 10-volume report submitted to the apex court recommended that a corruption case should be filed against Sharif and his sons Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, as well as daughter Maryam Nawaz, under the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) ordinance 1999. 

Other charges
 
Maryam Nawaz was also accused of accumulating "assets disproportionate and beyond means of known sources of income", Dawn newspaper reported.
 
The JIT's report said: "She had been receiving heavy gifts from Rs 73.5 million to Rs 830.73 million within period of 2009-2016."
 
It said that the "accumulation of Maryam's assets shows a drastic hike in the early 1990s with no declared source of income".

What Maryam said?
 
The report was slammed by the Sharif government as "trash". Maryam also rejected the report, saying, "JIT report REJECTED. Every contradiction will not only be contested but decimated in SC. NOT a penny of public exchequer involved."

How social media is reacting?

Calibri font has become a trending topic among Twitterati after the news of JIT report broke out. Twitter users are posting their views under different hashtags. While some are seen rebuffing the report submitted by JIT, others are disparaging Nawaz and his family. 

Twitterati can also be seen targeting Maryam Nawaz in a hysterical manner. 
 
With inputs from Agencies
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