June 15, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1429

RAWALPINDI, June 14: A former judge of Lahore High Court, who has been in jail for over 16 years now, on Saturday faced yet another adjournment as the jail authorities did not produce him in the court of special judge central where two cases of alleged forgery registered in 1986 by special investigation unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against him are pending.

Judge Shaukat Ali Sajid directed the jail authorities to ensure the presence of Dr Ghulam Mustafa Ismail Qazi, a former ad hoc judge of the LHC, in the court on June 20. A jail official informed the court that the accused could not be produced due to the lawyers’ long march.

Two FIRs under sections 17, 18 and 22 of Passport Act were registered against him on the charges of preparing some fake documents to send people abroad. The accused was shifted to Adiala jail on May 9 after he was acquitted in all other cases in Hyderabad, Karachi and Multan.

Mr Mustafa, who claims to be a PhD in Arabic, having worked as an ad-hoc judge of the high court for three years during the Ziaul Haq era, was arrested on November 24, 1992 as he was charged with involvement in the preparation of forged documents and a case (FIR 119/92) against him was registered by CIA police at Karachi’s Clifton police station in 1992.

Later, Mr Qazi was shifted to Hyderabad where some 17 cases were pending against him. He was acquitted of all the cases on March 17, 2003 and was shifted back to Karachi where he was also acquitted in the case on August 20, 2007. His cases saw procrastination in both Karachi and Hyderabad due to disappearance of his case files.