RAWALPINDI, Nov 6: A self-proclaimed former judge of the Lahore High Court was freed from central jail Adiala on Thursday after over 17 years imprisonment.

The release came after a special judge central (SJC) has honorably acquitted him in the last three of 20 cases registered against him by the federal investigation agency (FIA) in four different cities of the country.

Siddique Mughal, the lawyer of 65-year-old Qazi Ghulam Mustafa Ismail told Dawn that SJC acquitted his client in three cases registered against him in 1982 by the FIA under passport act for allegedly preparing fake documents and sending people abroad. Mustafa Ismail was released on Thursday evening after he spent 17 consecutive years in different jails without being convicted in a single case. He said freedom was the greatest blessing when this reporter talked to him on the callphone of his lawyer after his release.

Mustafa Ismail was booked in Rawalpindi Multan, Hyderabad and Karachi by the FIA in 1982/83 for forgery and if convicted he should have undergone 14 years maximum imprisonment but he had to spend 22 years in jail with two years spending outside the jail on bail. If all remissions and pardons are counted he has undergone over 40 years imprisonment as an under trail prisoner, his lawyer said criticizing the judicial system of the country.

Mr Qazi remained in Karachi jail with out any legal proceedings for 16 years as his police file went missing and the investigation officer got retired and nobody pursued his case. He was acquitted in all cases registered against him in Hyderabad, Karachi and Multan.

The accused was brought to Rawalpindi in May and kept in Adiala jail but he was not produced in any court of law for over one month to face trial in two more cases. He was produced after his predicament was highlighted in media. When his lawyer was seeking his acquittal in two cases, the FIA sought his custody in yet another case registered in 1982, 26 years ago.

His lawyer said Mustafa Ismail had undergone so much agony that he became mentally ill and started claiming himself a former judge, a PhD and a former high rank government servant.