Best of the best selected for JIT

ISLAMABAD: They looked the best of the best of their trades. Senior officers, the country’s top court picked to probe the Sharifs’ family in the Panama Leaks case on Friday, have an impressive career path and credentials, their profiles suggested. 

This correspondent spoke to their friends and family members in an effort to know their profiles soon after the Supreme Court announced the names of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the prime minister and his children in the Panama case. 

Wajid Zia of the Federal Investigation Agency is a seasoned police officer who has served as an investigator at one of the United Nation's missions in The Hague. He will be heading the JIT. Zia, who also served in the Intelligence Bureau, has been a part of the JIT formed to investigate the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He has also served in the Motorway Police and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police.

Brig Kamran Khurshid, who is representing the Military Intelligence in the JIT, is a seasoned officer who was also part of a crucial meeting between the Border Security Force, India, and Pakistan Rangers held at the JCP Attari in December 2007.

Brig Nauman Saeed, who is representing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the JIT fought the war against militants in Khar and Bajaur Agency. He was part of an operation named Lionheart against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda fighters in Bajaur, a mountainous area bordering Afghanistan in 2008-09. As a commander, Saeed led his men on a two-year campaign to drive out thousands of TTP militants from the area. He was awarded Sitara-i-Basalat in 2009. 

Irfan Naeem Mangi, who is representing the National Accountability Bureau, has 14 years experience of investigation in financial corruption. He studied at the National Defence University and joined NAB in 2003. As member of the JIT, Mangi, (BS-20), has been investigating major projects namely the Saindak copper-cum-gold project and the Balochistan copper case in particular. 

Executive Director Communication Bilal Rasool of the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan is a Chevening scholar and studied economics and finance at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom in 1995. 

He joined the SECP as a young officer some 24 years ago after completing his masters at the Quaid-e-Azam University. He also did a course from the United States in anti-money laundering in 2003. He can speak Arabic fluently and investigated the Modaraba case in 2007 where he had been facing many threats from certain elements. He is also the father of the first-ever anti-money laundering ordinance and headed the SECP's anti-money laundering cell accordingly. 

Amer Aziz, an officer of (BS-21), is a chartered accountant by profession. He is the son of Brigadier (retd) Abdul Aziz and joined the State Bank of Pakistan in 1997. He is also currently serving as the managing director of the National Institute of Banking and Finance in Islamabad.