ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court has decided to hear on Monday an application of prime minister’s son Hussain Nawaz questioning neutrality of two members of Joint Investigation Team probing Panamagate case.

Another member of the Sharif family has moved a complaint to the head of six-member JIT as well as the court against ‘a few’ of the probe team members, alleging that they ‘misbehaved’ with him during interrogation.

The couple PML-N leaders have also expressed reservations over the proceedings of the team, which is probing into the offshore properties of the ruling family in line with the April 20 verdict in Panamagate case.

“We received the applications of Hussain Nawaz Sharif expressing reservation about two members of the JIT namely Bilal Rasool and Amer Riaz. Let these applications be numbered and listed for hearing in the court on Monday (29-05-2017),” read a Wednesday order from the three-member implementation bench.

The JIT comprises Wajid Zia from Federal Investigative Agency, Brig Nauman Saeed from Inter Services Intelligence, Brig Kamran Khurshid from Military Intelligence, Irfan Naeem Mangi from National Accountability Bureau, Amir Aziz from State Bank of Pakistan and Bilal Rasool from Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

Sources told The Nation that four days ago Hussain Nawaz through an email sent an application to the implementation bench of the apex court against Bilal Rasool and Amir Aziz, saying they have links with Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Asserting that their presence on the probe panel could compromise neutrality of the investigation, he demanded they should be replaced.

According to media reports, one of these JIT members is a close friend of former general-president Pervez Musharraf and was very active when the treason case was being heard by the special court.

The other one is said to be a relative of former Punjab governor Mian Azhar, a founding member of the PML-Q and currently aligned with the PTI, the main force pressing for probing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members for their seemingly beyond-means assets.

The implementation bench is being headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprises Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan.

On May 22, when the bench took up JIT’s first progress report, it did not mention any application from Hussain Nawaz. The order on it was passed on Wednesday when the application was highlighted in the media.

Reports carried by different media channels said Tariq Shafi, a cousin Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has lodged the complaint against some of the JIT members with the head of the investigation team, saying they misbehaved with him during questioning.

Mr Shafi is a key witness in the probe. It was he who, in an affidavit furnished before the Supreme Court, claimed that he deposited 12 million UAE dirhams in cash with the Qatari rulers after the sale of Gulf Steel Mills in 1980.

In the Jan 20, 2017 affidavit, Tariq Shafi stated he had deposited the money with Sheikh Fahad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani of Qatar after receiving each instalment from Mohammad Abdullah Kayed Ahli, the owner of the Ahli Steel Company, Dubai, in which Shafi held 25pc shares.

Sources said that Shafi was recently interrogated and he was given a tough time by some of the investigators, which has made him move a complaint to the team head Wajid Zia.

They said a copy of the complaint was reportedly also sent to the Supreme Court registrar on Monday for perusal of the implementation bench. However, no mention of Shafi’s complaint was made during the hearing.

The bench instead asked the JIT members that they must inform the court if any department was not cooperating or dragging its feet, adding that “we know how to implement our order”. The court, however, observed that so far no one had caused any hindrance.

PM House spokesperson Musadik Malik claimed on Wednesday that the process adopted by the JIT was extrajudicial and the top court would be informed about that. In a statement he said, that it should be in knowledge of the court whether the investigations being hailed as fair are in that spirit or not.

Earlier, speaking to journalists after Monday’s hearing, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry had said that the prime minister will exercise all his rights which he voluntarily withdrew from the SC proceedings. He said the government has conveyed its reservations to the court but he will not like to talk about it in the public.

“We hold the right to exercise the constitutional rights which are given to every Pakistani citizen. We hope that the JIT will not apply different laws for Nawaz Sharif,” he said. “Hasan and Husain Nawaz should be given the rights which are enjoyed by any non-residential Pakistani,” Talal maintained.