KARACHI: Additional District and Sessions Judge Hifzur Rehman granted on Wednesday one-day exemption to Axact chief executive officer Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh in a case pertaining to alleged money laundering.

The defence counsel moved an application, stating his client Shoaib Sheikh was busy in Islamabad in connection with an appeal to be filed against his conviction in the fake degrees case. Therefore, he pleaded to exempt the applicant from personal appearance during the hearing, which was allowed by the ADJ-IX (South), who directed convicted Axact CEO to appear on August 11.

Earlier, on June 20, a court indicted Shoaib Sheikh along with two directors of a Dubai-based money exchange firm.

The Axact CEO was accused of having illegally transferred Rs170.17 million to Dubai-based Chanda Exchange Company in April 2014.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also named the money exchange firm’s directors Mohammad Younis and Mohammad Junaid as co-accused in the case, which was registered under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947.

Separately, Shoaib Shaikh and 24 others on July 5 were awarded 20 years imprisonment by the district and sessions judge of Islamabad, who also imposed a fine of Rs1.3m on the convicts found guilty of running a fake degrees mill.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2018