[2] Panag was born on 4 December 1948 in a Jatt Sikh family at Mahadian village, Fatehgarh Sahib district, in the Indian state of Punjab.

His father, Colonel Shamsher Singh was a distinguished personality known for taking social initiatives in the field of development, education, ex-servicemen issues, gender equality and child rights.

[4] Sherbir is a top ranked lawyer for white collar crime in the Asia Pacific[5] and is a senior fellow at the Wharton School's Zicklin Centre for business ethics.

[citation needed] His brother, also an army man, Major General Charanjit Singh Panag (retired) has various publications to his credit.

During his career he has served in various positions: Panag also held the post of Additional Director General (Perspective Planning) at the Army HQ.

[12] Panag along with Lt. Gen. Rustom K. Nanavatty devised a military operation codenamed 'Operation Kabaddi' in mid-2001 to capture 25–30 Pakistan army posts from Batalik in Ladakh to Chamb-Jaurian in Jammu sector on the LoC.