Pakistan’s ‘fontgate’: how Calibri became key piece of evidence in claims prime minister falsified documents

A typeface has sparked uproar in Pakistan after documents using the font were produced in a corruption case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – despite being dated a year before the design was released.

Microsoft’s Calibri font was used to type certified papers naming Sharif’s daughter Maryam as a trustee for several of the family’s high-end London properties.

The plush apartments are at the heart of the case against the Sharif family, with authorities and the opposition questioning the legitimacy of funds used to buy them via offshore companies.

The identity of the legal beneficiaries has formed part of the probe, and the documents were meant to show that Maryam, who is Sharif’s presumptive political heir, was a trustee only. But the papers were dated February 2006 – a year before the font in which they are typed was in widespread commercial use, according to its creator.

The same conclusion was drawn by a joint investigative team (JIT) tasked by Pakistan’s Supreme Court with examining the corruption claims, which had London’s Radley Forensic Document Laboratory assess the documents.