ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Balochistan High Court (BHC) order convicting former provincial minister for urban development and planning and chairman of the Quetta Development Authority , Gul Zaman Kasi, in a corruption case, sentencing him to three years, but set aside a separate appeal against sentencing him in absentia for one year.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani set aside the sentence in absentia with an observation that the decision could not be sustained as the trial in absentia had already been declared 'violative' of Article 9 of the Constitution in the Mehram Ali case. Besides, appellant Kasi was subsequently arrested and tried on corruption charges.

Earlier, the BHC on June 19, 2003, had dismissed the appeal of Kasi against his sentence of one year in absentia. In a separate case, the ex-minister had also appealed before the Supreme Court against the November 5, 2003, orders of the BHC which had upheld the judgement of the Accountability Court, Balochistan, of sentencing him for three years in jail with a fine of Rs300,000.

The accountability court had also directed forfeiting the property of the appellant as set off against the amount of fine. He was also disqualified from holding any pubic office or from applying for any financial facility from any bank or financial institution for a period of 10 years.

Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani, in a written judgement, observed that the judgement of the accountability court or that of the high court "does not warrant" any interference besides no question of law of public importance was raised. "The petition having no merit is accordingly dismissed and leave refused," the order said.