By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested Shoaib Shaikh, owner of a private television channel and chief executive of Axact, for allegedly giving Rs5 million as a bribe to then-additional district and sessions judge Pervaizul Qadir Memon for getting acquittal in a fake degree case.
FIA spokesperson said the businessman was arrested by the agency’s anti-corruption circle in the federal capital. The agency said the suspect had paid a bribe for acquittal in the case registered against him under the fake degree scam in Islamabad’s cybercrime circle.
The FIA spokesperson added that the agency has started investigating Shaikh following his arrest. The judge, too, was nominated in the case against Shaikh, the FIA said.
The FIA, on February 15, 2023, summoned the Axact chief in connection with the bribe case. Shaikh, however, did not appear before the probe team.
Memon had acquitted Shaikh, chief executive officer (CEO) of Axact — the company that made billions of dollars by selling fake degrees worldwide — and others in fake degrees scam on October 31, 2016. Later, the judge was sacked on February 15, 2018, by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) as he confessed before a departmental promotion committee that he had received the bribe for acquitting the accused.
The IHC division bench in April 2018 had set aside the October 31, 2016 acquittal order passed by Memon.
Meanwhile, a case had been filed against the CEO of Axact under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Bribery Act with the FIA at the request of the IHC registrar.
