ISLAMABAD – The Islamabad High Court has suspended an additional session judge for allegedly taking bribes from Axact CEO Shoaib Sheikh to acquit him and other accomplices in the fake degree case.
According to the local media, the high court also sought response from additional session judge Pervaizul Qadir Memon within 14 days asking him why a major penalty was not imposed on him.
The accused judge was issued a show-cause notice in which it is stated that Qadir has confessed to taking bribe amounting to Rs5,000,000 from Shoaib Sheikh, CEO of Bol TV, in the fake degree case before the promotion committee.
Now, the additional judge has refused the allegations and challenged the notice in the Islamabad High Court. Justice Amir Farooq will take up the case today at the high court.
Case History
Following a news story in New York Times, CEO Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, managers Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Mohammad Sabir and Zeeshan Ahmed and 14 other officials/employees of the software firm were booked in May 2015 year for allegedly preparing and selling fake degrees, diplomas and accreditation certificates of fictitious schools/universities through a fraudulent online system and illegally minting millions of dollars.
In its report submitted to the sessions court, the FIA alleged that evidence forensically extracted from Axact’s databases between 2010 to 2015 showed that diplomas and degrees of fake universities based in the US had been issued to over 240,000 students of different countries, Dawn reported.
The company earned more than $205 million in the process.
