Islamabad: LeT`s operations chief Zakiur
Rehman Lakhvi`s petition seeking his acquittal in the Mumbai
attacks case could not be taken up by Pakistan`s Supreme Court
on Wednesday due to paucity of time and is expected to be heard next
week.
The petition was listed for hearing today but the apex
court could not take it up as it was pre-occupied with a case
related to alleged wrong-doing in the award of a liquefied
natural gas contract last year, Lakhvi`s counsel Khwaja Sultan
told agency.
The apex court had last week issued notice to the
government to respond to Lakhvi`s petition by today.
The Supreme Court`s registry is expected to set a date on
Saturday for the hearing of the petition next week, Sultan
said.
In his petition filed on April 7, Lakhvi sought his
acquittal on the ground that the prosecution had no evidence
linking him to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, barring the
"retracted" confession of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone attacker
arrested alive by Indian authorities.
Lakhvi also asked the apex court to restrain an
anti-terrorism court and the prosecution from using Kasab`s
confessional statement as evidence against him.
Sultan has contended that the prosecution had not
levelled any allegation about Lakhvi`s "connection or
interaction" with any of the six co-accused and others persons
allegedly involved in the Mumbai carnage.
The Lahore High Court yesterday admitted a separate
petition filed by the prosecution challenging the
anti-terrorism court`s decision not to declare Kasab and Fahim
Ansari, another suspect arrested by Indian authorities, as
"proclaimed offenders" or fugitives.
The prosecution wants them to be declared fugitives as
this is a pre-requisite for using Kasab`s statement in the
anti-terrorism court.
Lakhvi and six other suspects, Zarar Shah, Hamad Amin
Sadiq, Abu al-Qama, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas
Anjum, are being tried by the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism
court on charges of planning and facilitating the Mumbai
attacks that killed 166 people.
PTI
