Moalims

ISLAMABAD: The Axact Private Limited has kept its allegedly illegal business of education secret from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as it is registered as an information technology (IT) company only, a violation of the Companies Ordinance 1984, a well-placed source in the SECP informed The News.
Besides keeping the unregistered business of education secret from the SECP, the authorities also raised questions on the third director of Axact, who is not a person but a company named as Axact LLC, which is registered in the Dubai Free Zone where anyone can operate a company with black money.
Talking to The News, the high-level official of SECP said that Axact was registered with the SECP in 2006. It was registered as an IT company whereas it never mentioned its business of education in the documents available with the SECP. The company has never even mentioned about its business of education on any of its websites.
The source further stated that the memorandum of association and memorandum of articles of the company also say nothing about its education business, which is a violation of the Companies Ordinance 1984.
Talking further about the shares of Axact Private Limited, the source stated that Axact has six million registered shares. Out of these total six million shares, Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh and his wife Ayesha Shoaib Sheikh have only two shares whereas the remaining 5,999,998 shares are owned by the third director – Axact LLC, based in Dubai Free Zone.
When asked whether this is a normal practice as the two directors – Sheikh and his wife – have only two shares whereas the third one has 99.999 percent shares of the company, the source said he could not say anything about it. However, those who are aware of the stock exchange business believe that this practice reflects that Sheikh was just a frontman of the company which has 99.999 percent shares.
To a question about the owner of the company which is based in the Dubai Free Zone, the source stated that the SECP could not obtain any information about any company operating from the Dubai Free Zone as it never shares any information about any company operating from there.
Besides Axact, the source informed that two other companies, Bol Enterprises and Bol News, are also registered with the SECP and both the companies have five directors which include Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh, Ayesha Shoaib Sheikh, Viqas Atiq and another female. However, as per the documents presented in the SECP, the majority of shares in the said two media companies are owned by Shoaib Ahmed Sheikh.
When asked whether the SECP is going to take any action against the company on its alleged fraud of fake degrees, the source stated the SECP is a regulatory body and not a policing entity, hence it can only regulate the companies.
“The SECP has decided to cooperate and assist the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team, which has been constituted on the directives of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to probe into the alleged fraud. The SECP will take action on the basis of the findings of FIA team which is probing the alleged fraud,” stated the source.
Currently, the SECP is analysing the annual returns and all other relevant documents related to the company. It is also analysing the memorandum of association and memorandum of articles of the company.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015