ISI officer included in Panama case JIT against Sharif to 'spice it up', says Pak chief justice

Pakistan's Chief Justice Saqib Nisar said today that the officers of the spy agencies - the Military Intelligence and the ISI - were included in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the Panama Papers case probe against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to "spice it up", according to a media report.

Chief Justice Nisar made the remarks during the hearing of a suo motu case regarding Rs 35 billion worth shady transactions from and to the account of Zardari Group, a business owned by the former president and Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.

During the hearing, the top judge hinted at forming a JIT as it was made in the Panama Papers case against Sharif, who is now lodged in the Adiala jail after being convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Avenfield case by an accountability court.

The chief justice asked Federal Investigation Agency Director General Bashir Memon to inform the three-member bench about the members of Panamagate JIT, to which, the apex court was told that the team was consisting of six members, the BBC Urdu website reported.

Memon started reading out the names of the JIT members and when he mentioned Brigadier (retd) Nauman Saeed's name the top judge asked, 'from which department this man belonged to?'