Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhary on Monday issued a notice to state for October 17 on a petition by Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, accused for the Mumbai terrorist attacks, seeking the court to transfer his case from Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court (ATC) to Lahore. The judge also sought a detailed report from the trial court (Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court) to explain what progress had been made in the contempt of court proceedings against Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Khawaja Sultan, a senior advocate, who is representing Lakhvi in the trail, submitted a transfer application on the plea of unfair trail and security reasons. He said that the ATC was not working independently as the government was influencing it and that the government was under India’s influence. He said that a contempt of court application was filed against Interior Minister Rehman Malik. It said in the application that the interior minister while addressing a seminar in London said that regarding the pending hearing of the Mumbai attack case, the court had granted a request to send a judicial commission to India and that the commission would leave for India within seven to 11 days. He said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had filed an application under section 503 about dispatching a judicial commission to India and the FIA had completed its arguments on it while the defence counsel Khawaja Sultan and other lawyers were yet to give arguments on behalf of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and other accused people. Khawaja Sultan said that the application from the counsel for prosecution for the formation of judicial commission to be sent to India with reference to the Mumbai blasts case was pending and that the court had not pronounced its decision about the effectiveness of the commission but Rehman Malik had given the statement without contemplating the repercussions.
