ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered different high courts to decide all pending cases against Shoaib Sheikh, the chief executive of the Karachi-based software company Axact, which is at the centre of a fake professional degree-awarding scam involving non-existent colleges and universities. A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken up the Axact case which was initiated on a suo motu on Jan 19 and had called a comprehensive report from Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon.

On Friday, Courtroom No.1 filled with employees of the Bol Television wearing red blazers was told by the FIA DG that Axact had been in the fake degree-awarding business from 2006 to 2015.

Recently, BBC had also run an investigative story alleging that the lucrative fake degrees business was still flourishing and the Axact call centres with its agents were allegedly ruthlessly fleecing their victims impersonating as representatives of famous universities and selling them fake degrees on payment of huge fees.

Journalists allowed to become party in the matter for non-payment of salaries

The scandal was originally uncovered by New York Times investigation in May 2015 in which it was revealed that the Karachi-based IT company was maintaining over 300 websites of universities and high schools, with elegant names and smiling professors at sun-dappled Amer­ican campuses, earning tens of millions of dollars in estimated revenue each year from many thousands of people around the world.

The FIA DG told the court that an FIR had been registered against the accused but he had been acquitted by the trial court and an appeal was still pending before the Sindh High Court.

The court ordered the registrar of the high court to fix the matter before its division bench which should decide the case within a month.

Likewise, the FIA DG informed the court that another FIR against the accused had been filed over money laundering which had been tried by an Islamabad sessions court. An appeal against the order is also pending before the Islamabad High Court.

The court ordered the high court registrar to fix the matter before a bench headed by Justice Athar Minallah to decide the matter also in a month.

Similarly, another FIR was pending involving the Prevention of Corruption Act in which FIA wanted to move an appeal against the trial court before the Peshawar High Court (PHC). The FIA was allowed to file the same.

Meanwhile, a trial court of South Karachi is also seized with a case but the accused has been taking adjournments on a number of proceedings.

The Supreme Court allowed the prosecution to move an application for cancellation of the bail granted to Shoaib Sheikh, but the court also made it clear that the observations made by it may not cause any prejudice to the accused in any manner.

The court had ordered the interior ministry to place the name of Shoaib Sheikh on the Exit Control List, but on the intervention by some anchors of Bol Television it withdrew the earlier directive in this regard.

The court asked a number of journalists who wanted to become a party in the matter for non-payment of salaries to submit applications for the purpose.

Shoaib Sheikh requested the court to allow a presentation to explain how such non-accreditated degrees were awarded the world over on behalf of different universities and it was a multi-billion business. The accused, however, was asked to submit a written application to be considered by the court later.

During the proceedings, the court expressed dismay over the absence of the PHC registrar and observed that it was a clear breach of the apex court orders. The court asked the Supreme Court registrar to contact the PHC chief justice, but at the same time issued a notice to the high court registrar to explain disregarding the earlier directives of the apex court.

An unpleasant situation occurred when during the hearing the court inquired about a journalist for his disagreeable article on a website and suggested banning his entry in the court or sending the matter to the Press Association of the Supreme Court.

Another journalist-cum-anchor came forward and said the issue should either be sent to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the Press Council of Pakistan or the Rawalpindi Union of Journalists.

The chief justice was bitter that his family had been targeted by the anchor many a time and suggested issuing contempt of the court notice, but again on the intervention of the journalists the court changed its mind.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2018