Calibri was available in 2005: UK expert

ISLAMABAD: The prosecution witness in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases against former prime minister and his family in the Ehtesab Court Robert William Radley corroborated during the cross examination by the defence lawyer Khawaja Haris that the facility of Calibri font was available in the Window Vista Beta in 2005.

The witness admitted that Window Vista issued three editions. The first edition of Window Vista was released on January 31, 2007 and the first edition of Window Vista Beta was issued in 2005 for the IT experts. The witness on being told that thousands of people were using the Calibri font, said that it was issued on a limited scale to the IT experts with the licence.

He said that he was answering the questions after consulting his notes which he had prepared for the purpose. He said that the issue was discussed and debated in a meeting.

Robert informed the court that he had been working as forensic hand writing expert since 1976 and the Cuest Solicitors hired his services on June 30, 2017 to compare two declarations. He deposed that he examined and compared the change of dates on Nielson and Nescol declarations.

The cross-examination of the witness by the defence lawyer will continue tomorrow.

Ehtesab Court Judge Muhammad Bashir held the hearing of the NAB references and in the afternoon the statement of the Pakistan High Commissioner in London Ibne Abbas was also recorded. He also identified both the witnesses. The second foreign witness of the prosecution is Akhtar Riaz Raja. Two representatives of the Sharif family, Saad Hashmi and Barrister Amjad Malik were also present at the Pakistan High Commission. The prosecution was represented by NAB Deputy Prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi and Lahore Director Investigation Amjad Malik Olak. The defence lawyer Khawaja Haris objected to the presence of NAB prosecutor in the Pakistan High Commission.

Responding to the objection, Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi referred to the court decision of February 13, after which he was allowed to remain present.

On the commencement of the hearing, the court reserved the decision on supplementary reference by NAB against Sharif family. The morning session of the hearing was attended by Aeysha Hamid, advocate assisting the defence lawyer Khawaja Haris.

Preferring arguments on the supplementary references, she said that the NAB obtained the documents through open sources and maintained that the filing of supplementary references corroborated the fact that the earlier references were weak and frivolous. She said that the SC had ordered decisions of the cases within six month which were about to expire. She requested more time for the preparation for the supplementary references.

In her arguments, she asked the Ehtesab Court to seek extension in the time line from the SC. The NAB prosecutor in his arguments maintained that the references would conclude within six months. The court granted exemption to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz from attending the afternoon session of the hearing whereas Capt Safdar attended it. Head of JIT and prosecution witness Wajid Zia presented the record of the case in the court.