Attorney General Choudhury Muhammad Farooq decided that the proceeding would be held in-camera after the court left it open for the parties concerned to decide if they be held in open court or in-camera, the sources said.

However, former interior minister Naseerullah Babar, who is a key witness, said everything about the case is public knowledge and there is no point in holding the proceeding in-camera.

The Supreme Court has announced it would start from May 19 day-to-day hearing in the case which has been pending for more than one and half years, they said.

A three-member Supreme Court bench headed by justice Saiduzzaman Siddiqui began hearing in the case last week but could not proceed after Farooq requested that the case be adjourned as hewas unwell.

The nexus between the ISI and the politicians came to light some two years back when air marshal Asghar Khan drew the attention of the then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah to a statement in parliament that ISI took Rs 140 million from a public sector bank for distributing it among politicians to forge an alliance against Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.

Justice Shah had converted Asghar Khan's letter into an appeal and begun proceedings in the case. Several hearings in 1997 revealed that as former army chief General Beg had conceded before a court that a political cell existed in ISI which acted as a conduit for disbursement of funds.

Aslam Beg along with the then ISI chief Asad Durrani are the two defendants in the case.

Even as Pakistan's apex court prepares to start proceedings in the case, a key witness, Younis Habib, released on parole in a "suspected" manner has been missing since then, sources said.

Habib was released from the Karachi central jail on parole for three monthsin December 1998 on the directive of accountability bureau, which is part of prime minister's office, The Friday Times reported quoting Sindh home department sources.

The report said it was widely believed that the key witness, whose deposition could have implicated premier Sharif among others, has left the country.