Islamabad: The hearing in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case in Pakistan against seven accused, including LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was on Wednesday postponed to December 4 after the prosecution team failed to turn up.
A witness was scheduled to be cross-examined on Wednesday. "The hearing was postponed after the prosecution team moved an application citing inability to appear," Raja Rizwan Abbasi, the new lawyer of the accused told PTI.
The earlier defence lawyers - Khawaja Haris and Riaz Akram Cheema had separated themselves from the case. Cheema had been pursuing the case since the beginning while Haris replaced his father Khawaja Sultan Ahmed after his death over a year ago. Cheema was also part of the Pakistani Judicial Commission that had visited India recently.
India has been expressing disappointment with Pakistan over the slow pace of the progress in the trial. The seven Pakistani suspects have been charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks in India's financial hub.
Pakistan has acknowledged that the conspiracy behind the attacks was hatched on its soil. However, it had claimed that India has not provided enough evidence for action against the accused, a charge vehemently denied by New Delhi.
India had also recently handed over five key documents running into nearly 600 pages for use in the trial here so that prosecutors can proceed against the seven accused. The documents include a certified copy of the Indian Supreme Court's judgement on the Mumbai case, depositions by two doctors who conducted the autopsy of nine slain terrorists and the chief investigating officer who probed the case, and summons to witnesses.
Two other documents contain proceedings of the Pakistani judicial commission that visited Mumbai last month, an application for producing articles recovered from the terrorists by the Pakistani senior public prosecutor, official sources said.
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