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Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the proposal to send a commission to India to interview lone surviving 26/11 terrorists Ajmal Kasab and officials who probed the attack was a legal requirement to take forward the prosecution of Pakistani suspects. However, he said there was no legal requirement for India's request to send a commission to question terror suspects linked to the Mumbai attacks.
"Whereas the visit of our judicial commission is a legal requirement in order to pursue the Mumbai attacks trial in Pakistan we do not see any legal requirement as far as the Indian proposal to send a commission to Pakistan is concerned," said Basit.
The spokesman was responding to a question whether New Delhi's proposal to send a commission to Islamabad was linked to Pakistan's earlier request to send its commission to India.
Basit said, "Our request and India's proposal fall into different realms. These two have to be taken in two different perspectives. We hope that the visit of our judicial commission would not be linked to their proposal, which we will consider according to our domestic laws."
India has said it wants to send a commission to question key terror suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks, including LeT's operations commander Lakhvi.
In a communication, India told Pakistan that it wants to send the panel to get voice samples of masterminds who directed the attackers in Mumbai. Pakistan had earlier proposed to send a commission to India to interview Kasab and key officials, including the magistrate who recorded Kasab's confession and the police officer who led the investigation into the attacks that claimed 166 lives.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said it is necessary to interview these persons to take forward the prosecution of Lakhvi and six other suspects charged with planning, financing and executing the attacks.