26/11 case: Pak court upholds prosecutors' application

Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, May 3 (PTI) An anti-terrorism court conducting
the trial of Lashkar-e-Toiba's (LeT) Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and
six other suspects in the Mumbai attack case on Tuesday upheld
an application filed by prosecutors challenging the contention
of defence that Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari cannot be
re-tried in Pakistan.
While upholding the prosecutors' application, Judge Rana
Nisar Ahmed of the Rawalpindi-based court ruled that another
application filed by defence lawyers, which stated that no
person could be tried twice for the same offence, was not
maintainable.
The lawyers defending the seven Pakistani suspects had
contended that that Section 403 of the Criminal Procedure Code
and Article 13 of the Constitution did not permit persons like
Kasab and Ansari to be re-tried for the same offence.
In their application, prosecutors said that the
defence lawyers had no legal justification to plead the case
of Kasab and Ansari as they were not representing the two men.
Experts had said that the application filed by the
defence lawyers was aimed at stymieing efforts by prosecutors
to make Ansari and Kasab part of the proceedings in the
Pakistani court.
Shahbaz Rajput, one of the defence lawyers, told PTI
that the anti-terrorism court's ruling would be challenged in
the High Court.
Kasab has been convicted and sentenced to death by a
special court in India. The same court acquitted Ansari but he
continues to be in custody in connection with other cases.
The defence lawyers have contended that the trial of
the seven Pakistani suspects has been held up because
prosecutors could not determine the legal status of Kasab.
The anti-terrorism court had earlier ruled that Kasab
and Ansari could not be declared "proclaimed offenders" or
fugitives as they were not wilfully avoiding court proceedings
in Pakistan.