Islamabad:
Anti-terrorism Court Judge Shahid Rafique who was conducting the trial of the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other Pakistani suspects, charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks, has been changed for the fifth time, raising questions about the trial's progress.
The Judge has been transferred and posted as the District and Sessions Judge in Jhang area of the Punjab province, officials said. However, no judge has been named to replace him.
Following the transfer, the case has been adjourned till June 9.
Though no reason was given for the Judge's transfer, Khwaja Haris Ahmed, the counsel for Lakhvi, did not find the move "unusual".
A prosecutor described the development as a routine transfer and posting. "Some other judges of Rawalpindi were also transferred today," he said.
The prosecution was earlier scheduled to present its arguments on the report of a Pakistani judicial commission that had visited Mumbai to record the statements of key officials who probed the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
At the last hearing on Saturday, Lakhvi had filed an application that asked the judge not to make the commission's report a part of the proceedings as he claimed that the report had "no legal value".
Judge Rafique took over the Mumbai attacks case last year after the Judge of the Rawalpindi-based Anti-terrorism Court was changed for the fourth time since the proceedings began in early 2009.
The proceedings have dragged on behind closed doors at Adiala Jail without much progress.
The trial has been marred by controversies and technical delays and only a handful of over 160 prosecution witnesses have testified so far.
In September last year, there were no proceedings for several weeks as no Judge was assigned to the case.
The seven suspects, including Lakhvi, have been charged with planning, financing and executing the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people in November 2008.