Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terror court
conducting the trial of seven suspects linked to the 2008
Mumbai attacks on Saturday adjourned proceedings till February 4
after defence lawyers raised legal questions about a judicial
panel set to visit India to quiz key officials.
Khwaja Haris, the counsel for Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the
commander of the banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba,
submitted an application that raised certain legal questions
about the judicial commission which is expected to visit
Mumbai next month.
The application questioned the notification issued by the
Pakistan government regarding the constitution of the
commission and also whether the panel would meet the
requirements of Pakistani laws, sources said.
The defence lawyers also challenged the inclusion of a
court official in the commission, the sources said.
Anti-terrorism court judge Shahid Rafique had recently
included a court official in the commission following a
request from the prosecution that an official was required to
carry the records of the trial in Pakistan to India.
There were no other proceedings during today`s hearing
and the judge subsequently adjourned the case till next
Saturday.
Khwaja Haris, a former Advocate General of Punjab
province, replaced his father Khwaja Sultan Ahmed as Lakhvi`s
lawyer today.
Ahmed died last week following an ailment.
The court directed Haris to submit his passport and other
documents so that he could join the judicial commission on its
upcoming visit to India.
Pakistan`s Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently
announced that the commission will travel to India during
February 3-6.
It could not immediately be ascertained whether the
application filed by Haris would affect the dates for the
commission`s visit.
The Pakistani commission will interview the Indian police
officer who led the probe into the 2008 Mumbai incident, the
magistrate who recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the
lone surviving attacker, and two doctors who conducted the
autopsies of nine terrorists killed during the attacks.
The seven Pakistani suspects have been charged with
planning, financing and coordinating the attacks that killed
166 people.
Their trial has been stalled for over a year due to
various technical reasons, including the admissibility in
Pakistani courts of evidence provided by India.
PTI
