Pak court puts off decision on commission for Mumbai case

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Oct 2 (PTI) A Pakistani anti-terrorism
court conducting the trial of LeT commander Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi and six others charged with involvement in the Mumbai
attacks on Saturday put off a decision on the government's
request to form a commission to interview key witnesses in
India.
Judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan of the Rawalpindi-
based anti-terrorism court asked the prosecution to inform him
whether the Indian government has granted permission for the
commission to visit that country to interview 24 witnesses,
including lone surviving Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab.
The prosecution told the judge that the government has
received India's "verbal" assent for the commission's visit
but Awan said this was not adequate. Awan said the prosecution
should inform him at the next hearing on October 16 on whether
Indian authorities have granted permission in writing for the
commission to visit India.
The prosecution's application for obtaining voice
samples of the seven suspects will no longer be part of the
proceedings though there was confusion on whether the judge
had rejected it or it was withdrawn by the prosecution. The
trial is being conducted in-camera and the media is barred
from reporting on the proceedings.
The court accepted an application filed by defence
lawyers seeking key documents related to several Indian
witnesses named in the fourth chargesheet filed recently by
the prosecution. These witnesses include doctors who performed
autopsies on victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and defence
lawyers sought copies of post-mortem and medico-legal reports.
The judge also took up the defence lawyers' earlier
request for the trial to be opened up to the media and
directed the prosecution to inform him about the government's
stand on this issue at the next hearing.
At an earlier hearing, prosecution lawyers had told
the court that they would have to consult the government on
allowing the media to cover the proceedings as the case
involved issues of a sensitive nature related to national
security.
Though the hearings of the case are usually held
within the heavily guarded Adiala Jail, where the suspects are
being detained, today's proceedings were conducted in Judge
Awan's courtroom.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently said that the
trial of the Pakistani suspects was stalled and it was
imperative to form the commission to go to India to record the
testimony of key witnesses like Ajmal Kasab, magistrate R V
Sawant Waghule, who recorded Kasab's confessional statement,
and police officer Ramesh Mahale, who led the probe into the
attacks. PTI