This was revealed by well informed sources to Business Recorder. The 12 were: the editor of the publication, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, the then privatisation minister Muhammad Zubair, State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, the then Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Prime Minister Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and MNAs Danial Aziz and Talal Chaudhry.
Prime Minister's daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Principal Secretary to PM Fawad Hassan Fawad, and Principal Information Officer Rao Tehseen have also been identified as a major source of information for the journalist who broke the story.
The sources further revealed that the government is willing to accept one individual amongst the 12 identified as responsible for feeding the journalist; and speculation is rife in the federal capital that the person so identified is Tariq Fatemi.
Sources further stated that the government is unlikely to make a bureaucrat responsible for feeding the reporter fearing that he may spill the beans and take a legal action if dismissed from service; other sources told Business Recorder that the maximum punishment that can be meted out to any bureaucrat is to be posted as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with the possibility of compensation at a later stage.
The government set up the inquiry committee on November 6, 2016 to probe the controversy surrounding the controversial report about a key meeting on national security held in the Prime Minister's Secretariat.
The committee included members from Military Intelligence, Inter-Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau. After examining the phone and email data of over two dozen top government ministers, bureaucrats and journalists, it has been established who played lead role in feeding the controversial story.
The delay in the release of the inquiry report was seen by analysts as an attempt to delay matters till the end of the tenure of General Raheel Sharif as the chief of Army Staff. However, the matter did not die down with the appointment of the new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the Interior Minister in his press conference revealed that the report would be made available to him on Tuesday 25 April which he will then pass on to the Prime Minister.
The Interior Minister during a press conference stated that the delay was due to a lack of agreement between the members of the inquiry committee.