After trying to shift the blame to India’s doorstep for not allowing “cross-examination’’ of 26/11 witnesses, Pakistan’s doublespeak on the 26/11 trial stands exposed after a Pakistan government letter written to India in 2010 clearly reveals that the Pakistan foreign ministry had agreed that the Pakistani judicial commission will not be allowed to cross-examine the 26/11 witnesses in Mumbai.
Much before the judicial commission’s arrival in India this year, the Pakistan foreign ministry wrote to the Indian high commission in Islamabad on November 5, 2010 assuring that the “Pakistani judicial commission has been asked not to cross examine the 26/11 witnesses in Mumbai.”
However, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday said that the findings of the Pakistani judicial commission are “illegal” since it was not allowed cross-examination and refused to treat it as evidence against the accused in the 26/11 case.
What brings out the contradictions in Pakistan’s own establishment, the Pakistan foreign ministry in its 2010 letter, accessed by this newspaper, had said, “The trial court will appoint a commission under the relevant sections of Criminal Procedure Code in order to fulfil requirement of Article 133 Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984....The commission has been asked not to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses as requested by the Indian government.”
The Pakistan foreign ministry also said that the commission will only “record/verify statements” of Mr Ramesh Padmanabh Mahale (chief investigating officer), Rama Vijay Sawant Wagule (additional chief metropolitan magistrate) among others “regarding confessional statement of 26/11 key accused Ajmal Kasab and the doctor who conducted the post-mortem”.
New Delhi now plans to confront Islamabad, asking it to clarify that the fact that the judicial commission’s visit had taken place under an agreement between the two countries and hence its findings have “evidential value”.
“We believe that the Pakistani government would have made it known to the trial court that they had agreed to certain terms and conditions on the scope of the judicial commission,” a top government official said on Wednesday.
The Pakistan foreign ministry’s letter also contradicts the stand taken by the defence lawyers in Pakistan representing Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operative Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and others that the Pakistan commission’s findings have no legal value since it was not allowed cross-examination of the 26/11 witnesses during its visit to Mumbai this year.