Is it a manufacturing fault?

Legal eye
Would Axact’s alleged relationship with fake universities have been as big a scandal for Pakistani media had Axact not been the sponsor of Bol TV? Would it have been as big a story for our honour brigade had the country not been ‘shamed’ by the New York Times?
In dissecting this scandal what is it that we are most riled up about? That Axact allegedly cheats innocent education seekers? That it made huge sums of money through a swindle? That it lied about its tax liability? Or that it has shamed a nation otherwise known for its integrity and probity?
On the legal plane the principles are clear. Media trials aside, one is to be deemed innocent until proven guilty. Axact claims that it provides IT solutions to its clients, which include educational institutions. To be found guilty of wrongdoing it will need to be established that it is the owner of fake universities and not just a service provider, or that as service provider it engages in forging documents, or that it conducts business it is not authorised to under its Memorandum of Association, or that it misstates income and indulges in tax fraud.
Notwithstanding our excitement over the scandal, which of the allegations are truly shocking? Isn’t the self-righteousness that has poured out of our TV screens over the last few days a bit nauseous? Do fake degrees bother us? Musharraf’s decision to make bachelors degree a prerequisite to contest elections was wrong on multiple levels. But how did contenders for public office respond? Did they resist an unwise law, or did they make a beeline for fake degrees? Remember Aslam Raisani’s golden words: a degree is a degree, whether fake or genuine.
Drawing on the Supreme Court’s resolve to expose fake degree holders, the media kept pouring scorn on fake degree holders. But did it make fake degree and the underlying problem of lying and cheating a public issue in Pakistan? Is the information that someone used a fake degree to procure his/her way to parliament a deal breaker for voters in a constituency? Is the reputation of having made money through illegitimate or dubious means a disqualification for those seeking public office? Does sullied reputation make one a social pariah?
What about tax theft? Does it cause any reputational loss? Do we think less of those who are loaded but pay little or no taxes? The publication of the annual tax directory is a small miracle. Each year after the directory’s publication we have a few stories trying to name and shame parliamentarians and public office holders who pay ridiculously low taxes. But is this bringing about a cultural change where people feel obliged to pay tax to seek society’s approval? Isn’t the issuance of tax notices still seen as the state’s age-old tactic to get someone to fall in line?
What is it about our evolving value-set that is making us comfortable with lying and cheating, and with endorsing an ethic that celebrates success whether achieved by fair means or foul? Is it a consequence of degenerating cultural norms or lack of civic education that even the heroes that our society produces fail to keep their honour intact? Aren’t scientists supposed to exist in a parallel universe largely unaffected by material attractions? Which other country boasts of nuclear scientists with reputations tarnished by allegations of graft?
Were we shocked when our cricketing heroes were found guilty in London for spot fixing a few years back? In 2013 the British attorney general enraged Pakistanis by arguing that corruption was growing in UK partly because ‘minority communities’ came from backgrounds ‘where corruption is endemic’. While we instinctively cry conspiracy or allege racism should a westerner identify our failings, is it not true that corruption is endemic in Pakistan and that we have grown comfortable with our culture of patronage and nepotism?
Forging degrees can never be defensible. But what about plagiarism? Our president recently conferred the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz on a professor (for his contribution to the study of science in Pakistan) who had been blacklisted by HEC for plagiarism. If those running pedagogical institutions rely on cheating to get ahead, from where will students acquire a different moral code? In a country where 28 million kids are out of school, and no attention is paid to values being imbibed by those who do go to school, how can we expect to produce conscientious and decent citizens?
If Pakistan’s formal education is no good, are societal practices a constructive influence? Look at the environment all around. Can you get anything done in your daily life without use of pull or money? Paying extra to get documents from courts in a timely fashion is such standard operating procedure now that it doesn’t even feel wrong. Friends within the police will tell you that connections surely help prod the state machinery into action but use of cash is still the surest bet. Can one name any citizen service that is delivered in routine on merit?
It is not institutional structures alone that are broken. Our social values are equally rotten. Stories of an earlier time when respect and ill-gotten money were antonyms seem fictional. Today money itself has become tainted because there is no way to determine if it is illegitimate or hard earned. If there is no way to lead a functional life without the influence money buys, if there exists no distinction between good and bad money, and if there are no adverse consequence (legal or social) of making money by hook or by crook, why should anyone aspire to do the right thing?
During election season in the United States, you find presidential candidates narrate stories of how their parents were poor immigrants and how the individual story of the candidate is one of hard work leading from rags to success or riches. There is an effort to connect with people and send out a message that the candidate is one of them. In Pakistan it is quite the opposite. Politicos feel the need to nurture or concoct an elitist pedigree to set themselves apart from ordinary people. There is an entrenched perception that ordinary folk don’t vote for other ordinary folk.
There seems little pride in celebrating ordinary hardworking parents who educated you and enabled you to achieve upward social mobility. And this is perfectly understandable in a culture where there is no belief in anyone climbing up the ladder by doing the right thing. Leaving aside those who have risen up the ranks within the bureaucracy or the military, do we have stories of first generation billionaires who made their billions using their brains and their talent to produce superior goods or ideas, like many billionaires in the US or China or even India?
We have heard much about how the Axact scandal is a cause of shame for having lowered us in the eyes of the world. What is the nature of this shame that doesn’t bother us while we wallow in it, but pricks us when others find out about our wallowing? Whether or not the allegations against Axact are true is a matter of fact that will need determination through investigation and evidence. The fact that it is instantly believable is not necessarily a judgement on the characters of this story. It is a judgement on the reality of Pakistan and what stories of ambition and success look like today.
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad.
Email: sattar@post.harvard.edu