Pak court adjourns hearing in Mumbai case till March 26

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Mar 19 (PTI) An anti-terrorism court in
Pakistan on Saturday put off till March 26 its ruling on a
plea by prosecutors to declare Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving
attacker involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack, and terror
suspect Fahim Ansari as "proclaimed offenders" or fugitives.
Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed of the Rawalpindi-based
anti-terrorism court, conducting the trial of seven Pakistani
suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks,
reserved his decision after hearing arguments by prosecution
and defence lawyers, sources told PTI.
During the hearing conducted behind closed doors at
Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, prosecution lawyers asked the judge
to declare Kasab and Ansari as fugitives as their presence in
the Pakistani court is required to proceed with the trial of
the seven suspects.
Lawyers defending the seven suspects, including
Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, opposed the
prosecution's application by saying that a similar plea had
earlier been rejected by the same court, the sources said.
Khwaja Sultan, the lawyer for Lakhvi, argued that
Kasab had already been convicted and sentenced to death by a
court in India and he could not be tried again in Pakistan,
the sources said.
The prosecution also asked the judge to separate the
trial of Kasab and Ansari from that of the seven suspects and
to summon 22 witnesses from India.
The defence lawyers argued that the prosecution wanted
to produce witnesses like Kasab and Ansari to whom it had no
access and this had resulted in "inordinate and indefinite"
delays in the proceedings in the anti-terrorism court, the
sources added.
"The defence lawyers told the judge that these delays
should end so that the actual trial could get underway," a
source said.
The defence filed an application under section 403 of
the CodeofCriminal Procedure and Article 13 of the
Constitution in which it sought the start of trial proceedings
and recording of evidence against the accused.
Sources said this application is expected to be taken
up at the next hearing.
Both section 403 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and
Article 13 of the Constitution state that no person can be
prosecuted or punished for the same offence more than once.
The defence lawyers have invoked these provisions to
stymie the prosecution's efforts to declare Kasab and Ansari
as fugitives.
The trial of the seven Pakistani suspects has been
marred by repeated delays over technical matters.
The judge has been changed thrice and only one of more
than 160 prosecution witnesses has testified so far.