No date from Pak on judicial commission's visit

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) Notwithstanding its commitment,
Pakistan has failed to convey to India as to when its judicial
commission will visit here for the statement of the
magistrate, who had recorded the confession of Ajmal Kasab, to
pursue the 26/11 attacks case.
During the Home Secretary-level talks held here in March,
India agreed to a Pakistani proposal to host a judicial
commission of that country to take statements of Additional
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R V Sawant Waghule and
Investigating Officer Ramesh Mahale, who have recorded the
confessional statement of Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist
of the 26/11 attacks, to pursue the case there.
It also wanted to take statement of the doctor who
carried out the post mortem of the terrorists killed during
the attack.
Islamabad has been maintaining that it is necessary to
send the commission to India as part of the judicial process
of the case in Pakistan and promised at the Home Secretary-
level talks that they would do so by May 15.
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik too, during his
meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram on the sidelines of a
SAARC meeting in Thimphu last month, had "affirmed that his
ministry was working toward an early visit of a judicial
commission from Pakistan to India".
He had also expressed the hope that the visit would take
place at an early date.
However, nothing has been heard from Islamabad so far on
the proposed judicial commission's visit to India.

Pakistan's contention is that the charges against the
seven LeT operatives, including its 'operation commander'
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, lodged in a jail there, are based on
Kasab's statement in Mumbai and hence the magistrate and the
IO's statements are necessary to submit before the anti-terror
court there.
Though trial in the Rawalpindi court had resumed, Indian
officials are not so optimistic that the guilty will be
punished any time soon.
So far, four judges of the court have been changed even
since the trial began in early 2009. Shahid Rafique is the
fifth judge to hear the case since the proceedings began.
A contempt notice was also served by the Rawalpindi court
to Interior Minister Rehman Malik for announcing that a
judicial commission would visit India, though the court had
not yet decided the matter.
However, on Saturday, defence lawyers decided not to
press the court to act on their application for contempt of
court proceedings against Rehman.