ISLAMABAD - A Supreme Court bench on Thursday acquitted a man alleged of committing rape of a girl in Sheikhupura, after eight years of the case.

A two-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa in its decision remarked that it seems an act with consent.

The court expressed resentment over the false testimony given by father of the complainant woman.

Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that the duty of a judge is to give justice, those who fail to provide justice should go back to home.

The court observed that the high court in this case ignored the evidence. The courts could not do justice without tackling false witnesses. ” The main witness of the case and the complainant Bashir Ahmed, gave false account of the incident,” the CJP said.

The false testimony could have resulted in death penalty to the accused, the CJP observed. Justice Khosa addressing the witness questioned,” Why the court not awards you life in jail?”

“If the court acted over the false testimony it will be said father was sent to jail after excess committed with his daughter,” the top judge remarked.

The girl’s father has changed his account of the incident twice before the court. This man seems a mentally disabled person, the chief justice remarked.

The sessions court had awarded life sentence to accused Nadeem Masood, while the high court had maintained the lower court’s decision.

There was no torture marks on the body of the girl, the bench further observed. The court in its decision abrogated the lower court’s verdict.

SC ADJOURNS DG NAB’S FAKE DEGREE CASE

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned plea challenging post-graduate degree of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore Director General Shahzad Saleem for two weeks.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the plea, filed by a journalist Asad Kharal.

Azhar Siddiqui, counsel for DG NAB apprised the Bench that Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared the post-graduation degree of his client, genuine. He said that HEC verified Saleem’s degree (MSc Computer Sciences) and found it 100 per cent genuine and valid (from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2000-02) following the court orders dated December 24, 2018. He pleaded that court orders had been executed and there was no need to proceed this case anymore.

Meanwhile, Additional Director NAB apprised the Bench that bureau had submitted its reply and report on the matter before the apex court.

Justice Azmat remarked that court would look into the reply submitted by the litigants and then could pass any order in this regard.

 The Bench subsequently adjourned further hearing of the case for two weeks. The matter of Saleem’s degree was brought up in the apex court last year during hearing of a suo motu case related to illegal appointments in the NAB.

Kharral had claimed that 2002 transcript of Saleem’s Master’s degree was in the Calibri font which was not commercially available until five years later. After an internal probe, NAB had declared Saleem’s degree genuine and cleared him of any wrongdoing in the case.