A four-member committee comprising members of the National Assembly was formed on Thursday to investigate whether a list allegedly created by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) of over 37 lawmakers suspected of maintaining links with banned terrorist and sectarian outfits could be attributed to the spy agency.

The committee — comprising Rana Afzal Khan, Shazia Marri, Shafqat Mahmood and Dr Muhammad Afzal Khan — will investigate the authenticity of the letter which contained the list during their investigation.

The director general of IB has been sent a notice to appear before the committee on November 10, along with all related members of the bureau.

The list had first come to light when a private television channel aired a report claiming that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had directed the IB on July 10 — three weeks before his disqualification — to keep watch on the listed legislators, who mostly belonged to the PML-N.

The chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has also been summoned to the committee's first meeting.

"We will also investigate the private television channel that first ran the news about the list about who their source was," Rana Afzal Khan told DawnNews

The list contained the names of a number of key ministers — including Riaz Pirzada, Zahid Hamid, Baleeghur Rehman, Sikandar Bosan and Hafiz Abdul Kareem, as well as National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi and a handful of senators.

The issue was first raised during a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in September.

According to Pemra, the IB — through its director — has already lodged a complaint against ARY News and the host of its programme Power Play for airing the "fabricated news story".

Pemra has forwarded the complaint to the Council of Complaints for further action, the press release added.