LAHORE, Jan 2: The prosecution was allowed five more days for submitting the detail of charges against Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja in the anti-terrorism court on Thursday.

The court further ordered that the accused must be produced before it on the next hearing.

Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar, who had been directed to submit the chargesheet on the last hearing, informed the court that the forensic report was being awaited. He submitted that bullet shells collected outside the residence of the accused were being examined by a forensic expert to determine whether they had come from a 30-bore pistol and a Klashnikov that were recovered from the possession of the accused.

According to him, the opinion of forensic expert would prove decisive in determining if the accused had opened fire on the police party.

The prosecution also moved an application for relaxing the condition of producing the accused in the court. Under the law, the presence of an accused in the trial court is a must for every hearing.

It was argued that the accused had been detained under Section 3 of the Security of Pakistan Act 1952 on the orders of interior ministry and their production before the ATC could create security problems.

Defence counsel Pervez Inayat Malik denied the claims of prosecution and submitted that the chargesheet must have been filed within seven days of the arrest under Section 13 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

He submitted that ATA would override all other laws including the Security of Pakistan Act 1952. The condition for producing the accused before the trial court could not be relaxed on grounds that they had been detained under another act.

The counsel pressed this point further by citing Section 29 of the ATA, saying that the trial in an ATC would take precedence even on proceedings in a high court.

The court allowed the applications of the prosecution with the condition that the accused must be produced on the next hearing.

The defence counsel requested the court for fresh orders to the Central Jail superintendent for allowing him and family members of the accused to meet them in jail. The application was allowed by the court.