Judge rejects taking bribe to release Axact CEO
June 16, 2017
ISLAMABAD: A single-member bench headed by Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Aamer Farooq will take up today a lower court judge’s plea challenging a show-cause notice by the high court over charges of misconduct.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Pervaizul Qadir Memon was recently suspended for allegedly taking Rs5 million as a bribe to favour the release of Axact CEO Shoaib Sheikh after quashing the case against him.
The case against Sheikh, accused of spearheading a worldwide fake degree scam, was quashed for want of evidence by the sessions judge in 2016.
Sources said Memon had accepted taking the bribe to favour the suspect in front of an IHC committee comprising judges and court officials. He was then sent a show-cause notice and given 14 days to reply to it.
However, Memon challenged the notice in a petition, which will be taken up today.
In May 2015, Axact had come under microscopic scrutiny when The New York Times’ investigative journalist Declan Walsh broke a scandal shining light on the company’s notorious business of selling fake degrees.
Following The New York Times report, Pakistani authorities had sprung to action. The Federal Investigation Agency and other law enforcement agencies had cracked down on Axact and closed its offices countrywide.
Despite the initial swift action, however, the case proceedings faced numerous delays and obstacles.
Four prosecutors, one after the other, dissociated themselves from the case for reasons unknown to this day.
Barrister Zahid Jamil, a top investigator of the FIA, tried to pursue the case again but his house in Karachi was attacked with a hand grenade by ‘unknown assailants’.
Despite assurances by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar that the case would be taken to its logical conclusion, evidence collection work in the courts remains halted since October 2015.
Sheikh is also out on bail in the other cases registered against him.
