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Wednesday April 24, 2024

Axact’s five-year accounts to be audited

FBI, other US agencies assisting Pak authorities in probe; fake degrees of 45 varsities shifted to FIA office from Axact HQ

By our correspondents
May 29, 2015
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will audit the five-year accounts of Axact, it has been learnt.
According to sources in the bureau, the quantum of tax due to be paid by the company will be estimated and if the audit proves tax theft then the company could be forced to not only pay five years of tax, but also an 18 percent fine.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information has written a letter to Pemra requesting it to stop Axact’s TV channel Bol’s transmission.According to sources, the information ministry’s letter says Bol cannot be allowed to air its transmission until the completion of investigations against the company by the FIA and other investigating agencies.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington Jalil Abbas Jilani says that in addition to the FBI other US investigating departments have also been requested by the Government of Pakistan to assist in the investigation process.
Talking to Geo in Washington, Mr. Jilani said the case had some other aspects too where the US departments concerned were assisting the Pakistani authorities.“The government had approached the US authorities based in Pakistan and we’re asked to approach the authorities in Washington.
As I have told your earlier that this case falls in the domain of cyber crime, money laundering and fraud. I think, the way the investigation process is going on and the FBI and other intelligence agencies are cooperating with
In a related development, fake degrees of 45 universities were Thursday shifted to the FIA headquarters from the Axact office in Karachi.The fake certificates and degrees of over 100 universities are to be transferred.
Five accused, including the CEO Shoaib Sheikh, are being investigated.The Axact’s business of issuing fake certificates and degrees of different universities is so wide that the task given to investigating officers and staff does not seem to be ending.
The FIA team, led by its Director Sindh Shahid Hayat, has been working hard for the last several days in the presence of magistrate.The work to transfer all fake degrees to the FIA office is a Herculean task as there are millions of fake certificates and degrees.
The exhausted officers said they had picked bogus certificates and degrees of just 45 institutions and universities only on Thursday.It is interesting to note that the FIA ran short of vehicles to load 28 cartons full of fake certificates and degrees and they had to hire a bus for this purpose.The sources said Shoaib Sheikh was pretending indisposition during investigation.