Accountability court dismisses ‘Calibri’ plea against Maryam Nawaz

NAB plea deemed non-maintainable by court

ISLAMABAD : The accountability court on Friday dismissed a plea by the anti-graft watchdog (NAB) seeking action against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz for allegedly submitting a bogus trust deed in the Avenfield case.

The court, presided by Judge Muhammad Bashir, declared the plea inadmissible for hearing

Maryam Nawaz was accompanied by her husband Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pervez Rashid and Sadia Abbasi. Dozens of PML-N workers were also present at the premises to support their party leader.



While addressing the media after the hearing, Maryam stated that Prime Minister Imran Khan's government is trying to suppress the voices of PML-N leaders but they "will continue to raise their voice against injustice".

She questioned why no action has been taken against Arshad Malik after she exposed him during her press conference with video proof on July 6.

The PML-N vice president added: “We need to sacrifice our own principles because of a selected prime minister.”

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had alleged that the trust deed Maryam presented in the Avenefield case was bogus and requested a trial against the PML-N leader for fraudulent documents.

In 2017, a Pakistani team investigating former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's alleged illegal offshore properties – flagged in the Panama Papers – released its final report that mentioned ‘Calibri’.

That report surmised that some of the documents it received from Maryam were forged, as they used Microsoft’s ‘Calibri’ font.

In and of itself, that was not a problem. There was just the small matter of the documents being from 2006, when the font was not available for public use. Microsoft released the font for public use in 2007.