KARACHI: Additional Sessions Judge (South) Sarah Junejo on Saturday excused herself from hearing the bail plea of Axact Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shoaib Shaikh.
Junejo is the third judge to rescue herself from the Axact scandal case.
The judge, who issued adjournment orders from her chamber, advised the defendant’s lawyer to obtain a new hearing date till the appointment of the new judge.
On Friday, Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Salahuddin Panwar refused to hear Shaikh’s bail plea and forwarded it to Justice Saleem Jaiser, who also excused himself. Justice Jaiser then sent the bail petition to Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.
During the hearing on Saturday, the Axact CEO was not present at the court while co-defendants Zeeshan Anwar and Zeeshan Ahmed appeared before the court.
On March 13, the CJP ordered controversial ‘IT company’ Axact to submit its tax records for the last 10 years.
Justice Nisar passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by Axact against a Supreme Court (SC) verdict in a suo moto case concerning the fake degree scandal that emerged in 2015 and has engulfed the company ever since.
In January, the chief justice had claimed that the nation’s “heads were bowed in shame” because of the scandal and had ordered Shoaib Shaikh to submit a written response on the matter.
The company, along with its response, filed an appeal against the suo moto as well. Shaikh, meanwhile, remains in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency in relation to a money laundering case.
THE CASE:
Axact scandal was emerged in May 2015, when New York Time published a report claiming that the company is involved in selling fake diplomas and degrees to people around the world through fictitious schools making “millions of dollars annually.”
According to FIA, in 2014, Sheikh transferred Rs170.17 to a Dubai-based firm, Chanda Exchange Company.