Karachi: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) are further tightening the screw on Axact, the software house accused of running a global fake degree empire.
According to Samaa correspondent, the authorities have tracked down suspects involved in printing fake degrees for the IT company, recovering nearly 100,000 bogus academic certificates.
Sources said the suspects, arrested by authorities in Islamabad, would be produced in court in a couple of days.
Reports said only two schools and a university run by the company have been found genuine.
Besides, the FBR has frozen Axact’s bank accounts, widening the scope of its investigations into the IT company’s monetary frauds.
Sources in the FBR said the company is paying monthly salaries of Rs.360 million to employees of its upcoming channel, Bol, but had not paid even a single penny tax on property worth billions of rupees it owns in Karachi and other cities.
Axact has hired many of Pakistan’s leading TV anchors for Bol at above-market salaries. Many of the journalists have resigned in the wake of the scandal, and those still working fear for their job future since the government intends to gag the channel till parent company, Axact, comes clear in the scam.
In this regard, the federal ministry wrote a letter on Thursday to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to make sure the channel remains off-air as long as Axact is facing the probe.
Sources in FBR say the company, which enjoys tax exemption in export of software, has yet to pay tax on Rs.430 million income. The FBR may seal all Axact properties at end of the investigation, they said.
On the other hand, the federal government has filed an application in Sindh High Court (SHC) against issuance of licence to four Axact officials for a TV channel, Labaik.
In its application, the government stated that Labaik made four Axact officials as ‘directors’ and ‘stakeholders’ for the channel in 2013 despite the fact that Ministry of Interior had not given security clearance to Axact Chief Executive Officer (ECO) Shoaib Sheikh and others.
The SHC bench led by Chief Justice Faisal Arab has issued notices to the channel to submit reply before June 5.
