Home Ministry officials are sceptical over the recent announcement of Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik that the Pakistani judicial commission will visit India on March 12, as it repeatedly failed to keep its dates in the past.
Islamabad has been maintaining for the past two years that to take the judicial process of the 26/11 case in Pakistan to its logical conclusion, visit of the commission to India to record the statement of Ramesh Mahale, investigating officer of the case and R V Sawant-Waghul, the magistrate who recorded the confessional statement of lone surviving Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was necessary.
"But despite conveying dates several times, they have failed to visit India citing one or the other reasons. The last time they cancelled a pre-scheduled visit was in the first week of February. We don`t think the Pakistani commission is going to come anytime soon," an official said.
On March 29, 2011 after the India-Pakistan Home Secretary level talks, a joint statement issued said dates for the visit of the judicial commission from Pakistan will be conveyed to India within four-six weeks. But nothing has happened.
Pakistan`s inability to send the commission has cast doubt over its intention and put the trial of 26/11 case in a Rawalpindi court against seven Pakistani suspects, including Lashker-e-Taiba `commander` Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, into further uncertainty.
When Home Minister P Chidambaram visited Islamabad in June 2010, Malik had conveyed to him that India would not be "disappointed" on Islamabad`s response to New Delhi`s demands related to the 26/11 attack case, including handing over of voice samples of the handlers of the attackers who killed 166 people in Mumbai.
A year later in July 2011, Malik declared that Pakistani law does not allow recording of voice samples of anyone.
On the sidelines of the SAARC Interior Ministers` conference in Thimpu last July, Chidambaram and Malik had a bilateral meeting where the Interior Minister of Pakistan affirmed that his Ministry was working toward an early visit of the judicial commission from Pakistan to India.
He expressed the hope that the visit would take place at an early date. So far, there is little movement on it.
The trial in the Rawalpindi court also has been going on at a snail`s pace. Curiously, four judges have been changed ever since the trial began in Pakistan in early 2009. Shahid Rafique is the fifth judge hearing the case.
The commission was announced by Pakistan in response to a directive from the anti-terrorism court that is conducting the trial of seven Pakistani suspects, including Lakhvi.
Pakistan`s contention is that the charges against the LeT operatives, lodged in a jail there, were based on Kasab`s statement in Mumbai and, hence, it was necessary to submit the magistrate`s and the investigating officer`s statements to the anti-terror court.