Islamabad: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will complete its ongoing initial inquiry in the Axact fake degree scandal in seven to ten days, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Saturday.
After that the next step — whether or not to register a First Information Report (FIR) with the police to set in motion the criminal justice process — will be decided, the minister said.
The interior minister spoke to the media after chairing a meeting that took stock of the progress made in the FIA investigation launched earlier this week after the New York Times revealed the scam in a report.
Nisar Khan said FBI legal assistance to the FIA was being sought to carry out investigations in the United States and the interior ministry would address a letter to the FBI in the next two days in this connection.
The minister said Interpol was also being contacted for assistance and later legal help from the United Kingdom’s investigation agencies and police may also be sought.
Promising a thorough, transparent probe, the minister asked the media to carefully handle the sensitive matter, which has “international repercussions” and avoid speculative and source-based reports.
He said at present the focus of FIA investigation was on the Pakistani IT company’s offices in Karachi and Islamabad and added that “substantive material” had come to light.
The minister said the investigations would be taken to its logical end without being influenced by “any pressure” in order to bring out the whole picture.
The NYT in its report by Declan Walsh had alleged that Axact, registered in Pakistan in 2006, had been reaping millions of dollars annually by selling fake academic degrees.
The executives of Axact had termed the allegations baseless and threatened to sue the NYT over the “slanderous” report.
At the start of the investigation the FIA reportedly had sealed the offices of the company. Investigators had collected computers, documents and other material from the company’s offices.
