Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh and his wife have appeared before the additional district and sessions judge (South) after the couple's production orders were issued earlier in the day owing to their no-show in the fake degrees case. As the hearing of the case went under way on Monday, the accused still failed to appear in court.

Judge Sarah Junejo directed the authorities to ensure the suspects' presence and adjourned the proceedings for a brief period. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which has lodged the case against Shaikh, will now present its witness in court, where the in-camera hearing is taking place.

At present, of the total four cases registered against Axact, the accused have been acquitted in two - one in Islamabad and another in Karachi - while one is under way in Karachi and the last, in Peshawar, is yet to start. Moreover, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has summoned Shaikh and the other accused on February 21 with regards to the FIA's appeal against the suspects' acquittal by a lower court.

The orders came on February 15 as the SHC, on the Supreme Court's orders, began hearing FIA's appeal against the acquittal of suspects in the money laundering case by a district court in August 2016.

Copyright Independent News Pakistan, 2018