remembered that this was how the British Empire began: in a maelstrom of seaborne violence and theft” (Niall Ferguson, ‘Empire’…page 1).
If this had been the United States, the late-night comedy hosts – the Lettermans and the Jon Stewarts – would have gone wild with it, lambasting the man of course but also making fun of the simpletons or the clever guys who really wanted fake degrees to spruce up their CVs. But this being Pakistan, we are getting no comedy, only heavy-handed lectures on morality. A bit more of this and very likely there will be an outbreak of moral indigestion across the land.
And let’s not forget the patriotic angle. Fake finance companies in the past have swindled Pakistanis, their operations mostly confined within Pakistan’s borders. Shoaib Sheikh thought big and for the most part conducted his adventurous enterprise overseas, catering to the needs of the American market where, as appearances suggest, there is no dearth of phantom universities providing, for the right kind of payment, degrees and other academic testimonials.
I heard a minister say that the Axact scandal had tarnished Pakistan’s name. This is nonsense. The world has other things to worry about: instability in the Middle East, the advance of Daesh, the civil war in Syria, etc. I haven’t caught anything in the American media suggesting that the CIA or the State Department were losing any sleep over the Axact scandal.
We should not lose our sense of proportion. If Pakistan can survive charges of nuclear proliferation and accusations of knowing about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, it is not going to be undone by Axact’s assembly-line production of academic degrees. This is a storm in a Pakistani teacup. It is not an international crisis. The Security Council is not about to meet over it. The State Department is not calling the Pakistan ambassador to lodge a protest about the forging of the secretary of state’s signatures.
If this had been only about fake degrees, no one would have paid much attention to it. But it was about much more, not just Axact but the TV channel Bol (now stillborn) the hype surrounding which had sent shudders through the media. Bol was being portrayed as super-big, leading anchors attracted to it because of the enticing salaries on offer, and threatening to sweep all before it. There were dark rumours of the security services being involved and underworld money behind the venture.
The NYT story came as a thunderbolt from the skies. No one had expected it. As the story was digested up went a huge collective sigh of relief – the threat which looked so potent having suddenly, out of the blue, dissipated. Barons worry about profits not morality. As TV anchors mounted the high horse of morality, barons in the business entertained a more pragmatic outlook, quietly savouring the dramatic exit, if not extinction, of a feared competitor.
The high salaries Bol was offering had touched off a sense of envy in the industry. When the Bol story unravelled and its spaceship caught fire, the sense of envy, I suspect, was replaced by a sense of barely-suppressed glee: the blighters were flying too high, they deserved their come-uppance. Somewhere in this saga envy and competition are mixed up, covered by a thick veneer of morality.
Shoaib Sheikh’s major sin lay in procrastination. If Bol had started broadcasting before Walsh’s story, the thunderbolt would not have wrought the havoc it has. It was just his luck that he tarried too long and retribution caught up with him.
Of course this is a big story. But at the risk of labouring the point, it is a big story not because of the fake degrees – which as Pakistani scandals go, is not such a big scandal – but because of Bol. Otherwise it would have been a middling story, triggering interest but in time forgotten. And if Bol had come on the airwaves and had its own team of serious-looking anchors it could have outshouted its rivals. Shouting has become an essential part of the national discourse. Without it one is as good as dead.
Yes, if the charges are true, Axact ran a fake empire, its activities bordering (allegedly) on the criminal. But let him cast the first stone who has not sinned. Sheikh aimed too high, reaching out for the stars when he couldn’t get there. But his faults pale beside the other scams and frauds with which our history is littered. The major political leaderships – no need to name them – the wealth and resources they have amassed…have they done so by fair means? Is the Axact scam worse than the Asghar Khan case, which is about the ISI gifting election money to a long list of politicos, including those in high places today? Is it worse than Model Town?
Axact supposedly pilfered money from a long line of unsuspecting clients abroad and then through devious routes touching Dubai brought the proceeds of its internet buccaneering to Pakistan. In Pakistan the trend is just the opposite: rob money from Pakistan and send it abroad. All our major leaders, apart I think from Imran Khan, have most of their money and resources stashed abroad.
Of course let the law takes its course – although it remains a matter of wonder why the law takes wing in some cases and simply refuses to budge in other cases, such as the Model Town drama in which 14 people were shot dead and scores injured from bullet wounds. Still, let the law takes its course, but even as it does, is it too much to ask that we be spared the heavy faces and the morality lectures?
The late Moin Akhtar, king of comedy, would have known what to make of this. Sohail Ahmed can still do a superb programme. But the TV muftis, may they have mercy on us.
Email: bhagwal63gmail.com