Pak Commission has no mandate for cross-examination

The visiting members of the Pakistan Judicial Commission, who recorded the statements of key witnesses in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, had no mandate for cross-examination of anyone following an agreement between the two countries.

Official sources said the defence counsels of 26/11 case in Pakistan were fully aware of the fact that they would not be allowed to cross-examine any of the witnesses but only take the witnesses' statements as per the mandate of the Pakistan Judicial Commission, currently in India.

"Their demand in Mumbai for cross-examination was purely illogical and against the mandate agreed by the governments of India and Pakistan. The scope of the Judicial Commission has no mention about cross examination," a government official said IN New Delhi.

The scope of the Commission was specific as already agreed to by the governments of India and Pakistan -- to record statements of the Magistrate who took confessional

statement of Ajmal Kasab, statements of investigating officer and two doctors who had conducted the post-mortem of the people who died in 26/11 attack.

This is a follow up to the detailed documentary evidence (certified copies) already supplied to Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency by Government of India and it is expected that the Commission once executed will further the pace of the ongoing trials of the 26/11 case in Pakistan.

On Friday, when the head of the visiting Commission and Pakistan's Special Public Prosecutor Zulfiqar Ali contended at Mumbai's Esplanade Court that cross-examination was legally permitted, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked him to inform the court about the arrangement mutually agreed upon by the two countries.

As Ali continued to insist on cross-examination, Nikam said that the Indian CrPC provided for adherence to what had been agreed upon by the two countries while making such an arrangement.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S S Shinde finally disallowed the Commission from cross-examining the witnesses, accepting Nikam's plea that both the countries had mutually agreed in October 2010 that only their statements would be recorded.

The 8-member Judicial Commission is here to record the statements of four witnesses on behalf of a Pakistani anti-terror Court which is currently hearing the case against Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects in the  26/11 attacks in that country.

The statements would be used as evidence against the accused during the trial.