QUETTA, March 3: A person who had spent nine years in prison without having committed any crime was released on the orders of the Balochistan High Court here on Thursday.

Mr Azizullah, 30, of Allahabad Colony in Karachi, had been travelling on a bus from Hub to Nushki via Quetta on January 25, 1996, to meet a friend when police arrested him, accusing him of being a citizen of Myanmar. A court sentenced him to six months under the Foreigners' Act.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Mr Azizullah said he was a Pakistani by birth, his family having migrated from India and settled down in Karachi in 1940. The local court convicted him and sent him to prison for six months, but the jail authorities did not release him even after he had undergone the sentence, he said.

Mr Azizullah said that he had appealed to the highest leadership in the country for his release but they did not respond while he went through the ordeal in the prime of his life. Mr Azizullah said he was married and would leave for Karachi on Friday to join his family.

Also speaking at the press conference, Andlib Qasrani, a lawyer belonging to a welfare organization, and Sultan Tareen, a social worker, who had submitted an application before the chief justice of Balochistan High Court requesting him to take suo motu notice of the case, said upon their request the court ordered an inquiry into the matter, and the report was submitted before the chief justice.

Ms Qasrani said that the chief justice on Thursday ordered Mr Azizullah be released. Responding to a question why the court had not taken any action against those officials who were responsible for 'destroying the life of a young man', she said there were some legal complications in the matter.

To another query Ms Qasrani said that the government had contacted Rangoon, asking them to take 'their citizen' but the latter made it clear that Azizullah was not a national of Myanmar.