QUETTA, April 5: The Balochistan High Court, Sibi bench, set aside on Friday a verdict of the sessions court against a former federal minister, Humayun Aziz Kurd, in a fake degree case.

Accepting the appeal filed by Mr Kurd, Justice Abdul Qadir Mengal described the judgment announced by the sessions court Sibi on Tuesday as “illegal and improper”.

The court ordered that Mr Kurd, who is in custody, be released forthwith.

“There is no iota of evidence available on record showing that the degree of the appellant is fake, forged or that he committed any fraud or knowing that the degree issued by the Lloyds University is not equivalent to that issued by universities in Pakistan,” the court said.

VERDICT UPHELD: In another fake degree case, the court upheld the judgment of a trial court which had sentenced Zahoor Hussain Khoso to one-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs600. The court in its order said the case had been fixed for hearing on Thursday, but was adjourned to Friday after the appellant submitted that his counsel was not present.

The court said the case was called twice on Friday but neither the appellant nor his counsel appeared before it, adding it had no option but to decide the matter in view of the Supreme Court’s directive to dispose of election-related petitions on or before April 4.

The court said the prosecution had proved that Mr Khoso had submitted a fake degree to the ECP to contest the 2008 election from PB 26 Jaffarabad. It said the appellant had failed to prove that his seminary degree was valid or he was a student of Madressah AL Quran Al Arabia Behrul Uloom in Shikarpur, Sindh. The court ordered that Mr Khoso, who had obtained a bail, be arrested and sent to jail to serve his sentence.