Karachi: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pakistan’s software company Axact, Shoaib Sheikh, appeared in Sindh High Court on Monday and submitted an application seeking protective bail in a case of bogus degree scandal,
Sheikh, accompanied by his lawyers, appeared before the SHC judge who started hearing into the case. The scam is being investigated by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on directives of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
A New York Times report last week revealed that a Pakistani IT firm is involved in a worldwide scam of selling fake degrees making millions of dollars at the cost of Pakistan’s reputation.
Authored by Declan Walsh, former Islamabad bureau chief of the US-based paper, the report said that the company operates from Karachi, where it employs over 2,000 people and calls itself Pakistan’s largest software exporter, with Silicon Valley-style employee perks like a swimming pool and yacht.
The report said the company does sell some software applications but according to former insiders, company records and a detailed analysis of its websites, its main business has been to take the centuries-old scam of selling fake academic degrees and turn it into an Internet-era scheme on a global scale.
