A Pakistani anti-terrorism court holding the trial of Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi and six other accused in the 2008 Mumbai attack case on Thursday adjourned the hearing till May 6 as the Islamabad High Court again failed to return the case record.
The judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court Islamabad held the hearing at the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, where six accused are lodged. The judge adjourned the hearing till May 6 when he was told by the court staff that the record of the case could not be retrieved from the Islamabad High Court.
Prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar told the trial court that it had also written a letter to the registrar of IHC regarding submitting the record to the ATC.
The Mumbai case record was transferred to the IHC in the first week of January when the Federal Government challenged the bail to leT operations commander lakhvi.
The Mumbai case hearings virtually could not be held after the trial court granted bail to lakhvi on December 14, 2014.
A court official told PTI after the hearing that the IHC had given a two-month deadline to the trial court to conclude the Mumbai terror attack case.
“But the IHC is not ensuring return of the Mumbai case record to the trial court which is surprising for everyone associated with the case. Two weeks of the two-month deadline has already passed by. In such circumstances the trial court may not be able to meet the deadline,” the official said.