The hearing in the Mumbai attack case against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects was adjourned for a week without any proceedings Saturday as the judge was busy with another official engagement.
"There were no proceedings today as judge (Malik Muhammad Akram) Awan had to go for an engagement in the Supreme Court," Shahbaz Rajput, the lawyer for some of the accused, told PTI.
Sources said the next hearing was scheduled for February 20. However they said it was unlikely that there would be any proceedings on that date too as Bar Council elections are scheduled for the same day.
It is expected the trial, which is being conducted within Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi for security reasons, will resume only on February 27.
The accused -- Lakhvi, Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum --were last year formally charged with planning and helping execute the assault on India's financial hub in November 2008.
Special Public Prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz Noon recently said that Pakistani authorities had 161 witnesses and "incriminating" evidence to prove the involvement of Lakhvi and the six other accused in the Mumbai attacks.
The Pakistan Interior Ministry has hired the services of Noon to head the prosecution team in the Rawalpindi-based anti- terrorism court that is conducting the trial of the seven suspects.