The hashtag #FontGate has exploded across Pakistan as citizens take to social media to poke fun at the government after claims documents were falsified as part of a 2017 corruption probe involving the country's leader.
, that in an effort to prove she was not the owner of several luxury London flats named in a corruption inquiry, Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Sharif submitted papers to court dating from February 2006.
But an examination by a British expert has found the papers were typed using Calibri font, which wasn’t commercially available until 2007.
Wikipedia has even gone as far as to block its page on the font from editing, after noticing a sudden uptick in revisions.
The claims have been made in a report submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court by a team of investigators, made up of civilians and members of military agencies, including the military's main intelligence agency.
The investigative unit was set up in the wake of the 'Panama Papers' leak in 2015.
revealed financial arrangements of politicians and public figures, including friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin, relatives of the leaders of Britain and Iceland, and the President of Ukraine.
It also linked a number of Pakistan President Nawaz Sharif’s children to several luxury London flats, which critics of the Sharif administration said were bought using funds obtained via corruption.
While the papers suggested Ms Sharif was the owner of these, she has argued she is only a trustee, and that her brother is the rightful owner.
Social media users have seized the opportunity to mock the Sharifs and the government.
The report by the investigative team goes on to claim the Sharif family had accrued substantial wealth far exceeding their earnings, leading to a call by Opposition leader Imran Khan for Mr Sharif to step down.
The Prime Minister had “lost all moral authority,” he said.
Prime Minister Sharif has denied all claims of wrongdoing, saying his family acquired all their wealth through legal means.
After serving as leader in the 1990s, he was ousted by a coup before returning to power in 2013.
Just months ago, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled there was an insufficient evidence to remove him from office, while ordering further investigations.
His daughter Maryam is believed to be his likely political successor.
She has already taken to Twitter to reject the accusations.
- with wires
