Axact's CEO Shoaib Sheikh and his deputy, Waqas Atiq, were taken into
custody after a raid at their Karachi offices on Tuesday night.
Officials said hundreds of thousands of blank degree forms, student cards and authentication documents were found.
Axact has called the claims "baseless".
The
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief for Sindh province, Shahid
Hayat, told media the agency had enough evidence to proceed against Mr
Sheikh on charges of fraud, forgery, money laundering and violation of
electronic transactions law.
Axact's CEO Shoaib Sheikh (centre) has said there was a campaign against Bol
Mr Sheikh was taken into custody 10 days after the International New York Times published allegations that the software firm based in Karachi was running a worldwide degree scam.
Raids
took place at Axact offices in Karachi and Islamabad. Equipment was
confiscated, records impounded and dozens of Axact employees were
briefly detained for questioning.
The wider interest generated by
the newspaper report in Pakistan is attributed to the fact the company
was going to launch a well-promoted, high-profile print and electronic
media group called Bol (Speak up), offering three to four times the
market salaries to journalists it had hired.
A number of senior
journalists who had been with Bol for several years, preparing for the
launch, have now resigned from their positions.
Axact has strenuously denied the allegations against it.
On its website,
it said last week: "Axact provides a comprehensive education management
system that benefits diverse bodies of students and caters to all types
of educational institutions - online and traditional.
"All 10
business units of Axact are completely legitimate, legal and committed
to enhancing the quality of IT services across the world."
It has accused rival media groups to Bol of "campaigning" against it.
Mr
Sheikh and Mr Atiq are expected to be produced in court on either
Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how soon formal charges are drawn
up.
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