ISLAMABAD: Islamabad has told New Delhi that recently obtained evidence of the Mumbai attacks is not valid in court because Pakistanis were not allowed to cross-examine Indian officials, a Pakistani lawyer said yesterday.
The Pakistani interior ministry wrote formally to the Indian government after a court rejected the evidence in July on the basis that the Pakistanis could not question Indian officials, prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar told AFP.
The letter is likely to aggravate New Delhi, which has branded Pakistan’s attempts at prosecuting seven alleged conspirators a “facade” and has insisted it has already handed over enough evidence to convict the accused.
Pakistan charged the seven men over the 2008 Mumbai attacks in 2009, but insists it needs to gather more evidence in India before proceeding further. “Defense lawyers were not given an opportunity to cross examine Indian officials,” said Zulfiqar, who headed the judicial commission’s visit in March.
Pakistan wanted Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is the sole surviving gunman from the attacks and sentenced to death in India, to testify, but he was not included among the interviewees requested by the panel. The Pakistani commission recorded the statements of Indian investigators, doctors who performed autopsies and the magistrate who took Kasab’s confession.
India allows investments from Pakistan
India overturned its ban yesterday on foreign investment from neighboring Pakistan, the commerce ministry said, in a move designed to build goodwill amid a renewed push for a peace settlement.
“The government of India has reviewed the policy... and decided to permit a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan to make investments in India,” said a statement from the ministry.
A ban on investments in defense, space and atomic energy will remain and all propositions must be notified to the Indian government.
The decision to accept foreign direct investment from Pakistan was taken in April this year when the trade ministers of the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals met in New Delhi.
They also discussed ways to ease visa curbs on business travel and the possibility of allowing banks from both countries to open cross-border branches.
India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence, are channeling their efforts into “trade diplomacy” in a bid to build enough trust to tackle the more troublesome issues that divide them, such as Kashmir.
The improved relations between the rivals stem from Pakistan’s decision to grant India “Most Favoured Nation (MFN)” status by year end, meaning Indian exports will be treated the same as those from other nations.
In further progress, the neighbors opened a second trading gate in April along their heavily militarized border, boosting the number of trucks able to cross daily to 600 from 150.
Pakistan tells India Mumbai evidence inadmissible
