Pakistan is ready to send for the second time a judicial commission to India next month to cross examine the witnesses of Mumbai terror attack to take the case forward in Rawalpindi court.
Islamabad has conveyed to New Delhi that the Pakistani judicial commission is ready to come early September for a visit to Mumbai and suggested two dates for it, official sources said. Seven terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, were charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 that killed 166 people and their trial was going on in a Rawalpindi court.
India has sought an early conclusion of the trial, which, it feels, is going at a very slow pace in Pakistan. The witnesses are metropolitan magistrate Rama Vijay Sawant-Waghule, who recorded the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, chief investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and two doctors from the state-run Nair and J J Hospitals who had conducted autopsies of nine terrorists.
The Home Ministry will soon approach the Bombay High Court for its permission to allow the Pakistani judicial commission to travel to Mumbai to question the four witnesses.
India has already given a written assurance to Pakistan that the legal panel of that country will be allowed to cross examine the witnesses when it visits Mumbai. The findings of the first Pakistani judicial commission that visited India in March 2012 were rejected by an anti- terrorism court in Pakistan as the panel's members were not allowed to cross-examine the Indian witnesses.
The agreement on the visit of the second Pakistani judicial commission to Mumbai was finalised on December 25, 2012 in Islamabad following several rounds of discussions on complex technical and legal issues between a four-member visiting Indian delegation and Pakistani officials.
During its visit, the Indian team had secured assurance from Pakistani authorities that the findings of the second judicial commission would not be summarily rejected by the anti-terrorism court that is conducting the trial of seven terrorists.
After the judicial panel visits India and cross examines the four witnesses, Islamabad is expected to reciprocate by granting an Indian judicial commission access to Pakistani suspects when it visits the country at a later stage.
The trial of the Pakistani suspects has made little or no headway for months due to various technical and legal issues. The Lahore High Court has barred the anti-terrorism court from using Kasab's confession while defence lawyers have contended that existing Pakistani laws do not allow witnesses in another country to depose via video-conferencing.
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