Pakistan apex court dismisses Lakhvi’s plea seeking acquittal

Forty-eight hours after Pakistan’s supreme court rejected two appeals by the government challenging the release of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) ameer Hafiz Saeed, the apex court on Thursday rejected a petition filed by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi seeking acquittal in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case after his counsel withdrew the plea.

Saeed, who is under house arrest, is believed to have masterminded the 26/11 terror attack and Lakhvi was named as the plotter of the massacre by sole surviving terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.

A three-judge bench headed by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said Lakhvi, one of the seven suspects being tried for involvement in the 26/11 attack, could approach higher courts after the anti-terrorism court decided the case.

The plea was earlier rejected by the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore high court.

Malik Rab Nawaz Noon, a senior advocate who represented the government, said the supreme court bench did not agree with the contention of Lakhvi’s lawyer that Kasab’s confessional statement to Indian authorities had no value in Pakistan courts. Kasab was sentenced to death by a special court on charges of murder and waging a war against India.

Leading Pakistani lawyers said Lakhvi should not have sought acquittal either from the Lahore high court or from the apex court when the anti-terrorism court has not yet decided his case. They believe Lakhvi should have approached the apex court only if the lower court had convicted him and his co-accused.

According to advocate Raja Amir Khan, Lakhvi must have been encouraged by recent verdicts of the supreme court where several jihadi and sectarian leaders got relief. “Otherwise, Lakhvi would have waited for the anti-terrorism court’s verdict before approaching any other court for acquittal,” he said.

Lakhvi’s counsel Sultan Ahmed Khawaja said he approached the apex court, thinking his client would benefit from the Indian court’s verdict convicting Kasab and acquitting two other accused.

According to him, the acquittal of Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed in the 26/11 case should have helped the LeT accused in Pakistan. He said the Indian authorities had based their case against Saeed and Lakhvi the confessional statements of Kasab, Ansari and Sabahuddin and the acquittal of the Indian nationals indicated that the court did not take their statements seriously.

Khawaja said the prosecution’s claim that Lakhvi had handed over maps of Mumbai to Ansari and Sabauddin had been rejected by the court. “It showed Ansari and Sabauddin’s links with Pakistani operators has not been established,” he added.

Lakhvi’s counsel had also asked the apex court to bar the anti-terrorism court and the prosecution from using Kasab’s statement against his client as it was recorded by an Indian magistrate.