ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has turned down a petition filed by a suspended judge seeking rejection of a show cause notice served to him for acquitting the owners and directors of software company Axact in fake degree case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Pervaizul Qadir Memon 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 a two-judge committee.
But, the additional judge had denied the allegations and challenged the notice in the Islamabad High Court.
While hearing the petition on Monday, IHC Justice Aamer Farooq remarked that there was a proper forum to take up the issue if the accused judge not satisfied with an administrative order and dismissed its plea terming it non-maintainable.
The accused judge argued that he had acquitted the owner of Axact as “the evidence brought on record by the prosecution could not have been made basis for the conviction of the accused persons involved in the case,” Dawn news reported..
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.
