An anti-terror court in Rawalpindi hearing the Mumbai attacks case held one more hearing on Saturday, but there was little forward movement in the proceedings, which the judge next adjourned to November 14.
The court is now dealing with an application by lawyers representing the seven accused including Laskhar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and another prominent LeT member Zarar Shah for attested copies of statements listed by the prosecution in their submissions to the court.
Over 100 documents
“[The prosecution] have listed over a 100 documents in the report of the investigation that they have given to the court, but some of them are not attached.
“We have asked for the attested copies of these documents, and also for copies of statements by some witnesses in the investigation,” said Malik Mohammed Rafiq Khan, one of the defence lawyers.
At Saturday’s hearing in Anti-Terrorist Court-1, judge Malik Mohammed Akram Awan asked the prosecution to provide these documents to the accused and their lawyers by the next hearing.
Contention of Defence
It is the contention of the defence lawyers that the court can finalise the charges against the seven men only after they have had the chance to go through these documents and place their submissions to the court on their admissibility.
Charges were earlier framed by Judge Baqir Ali Rana when the case was heard by him in Anti-Terrorist Court-2, but he requested it be transferred out of his court following a controversy over the manner, in which he framed the charges.
The Lahore High Court later ruled that the court hearing the case must take into account the argument by the defence lawyers before framing the charges.
