Anisa Shabir

I remember how the story “Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions” by Declan Walsh, published in The New York Times, turned the world of Axact, the world’s “leading IT company,” upside down.

It is a family ritual to sit together and discuss politics. We were watching Geo News when there was a breaking news on May 18, 2015. A picture of the building with five letters of Axact, with its distinct yellow X, visible on the edifice, was flashing across the TV screen. A report had unearthed the million-dollar fake degree scam, it said.

What followed the breaking of the story was quite unusual for a country like Pakistan. I had never seen the whole state machinery getting into action. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided Axact’s base in Karachi and Islamabad. The Interior Ministry also could not remain idle. Chaudry Nisar Ali ordered investigation into the case.

It was all hell breaking loose. The raids showed their offices stacked with fake degrees and diplomas from floor to ceiling. Shoaib Shaikh, the CEO of Axact and Bol, would make several appearances before the court, his defiant demeanor evident every time he was the focus of the cameras. The district and sessions court Islamabad sentenced Shoaib Shaikh and twenty-two others to seven years in prison in July 2018.

The intriguing part of the story was the extent to which their lucrative business had penetrated the countries like USA. It resulted in the capture of Umair Hamid, the vice president of Axact, who pleaded guilty in the US court in 2017, proving that the scam was real.

Back then, it felt the culprits would not get away, and that the system would bring them to justice. It proved to be a far-fetched dream. The security threats, and the system having a long history of weak prosecution, made it impossible to hold them accountable. The leading prosecutor, Zahid Jamil, withdrew from the case, followed by three others. Adding to the list, was the suspension of the frontman’s sentence by Islamabad High Court in October 2018.

Nothing has been heard of the case since then. It has been five years and the story is becoming part of dusty pile of case files, stacked in a cabinet, long forgotten. BBC, in 2018, reported on how the online empire was still active and thriving. Axact’s website is up and running, proudly brandishing “Axact’s vision for the future of Pakistan.”

This story has set a precedent. A country where censorship has silenced the critical voices, and where many stories that should be brought to spotlight, have gone underreported, this story managed to shake the foundations of a massive empire, that had been operating illicitly for years. Not only did it challenge the status quo, it proved that journalism has the power to hold power to account.

Journalism in Pakistan has still a long way to go. There are those at the forefront, risking their lives every day to bring the truth forward. Their number amounts to a drop in the ocean. The mediascape of Pakistan has been overtaken by the media gurus who have willingly kowtowed to the forces that be, and their dubious analyses has made it difficult to differentiate truth from fiction.

On that same day, picture of a journalist was also shown in the report on Geo News. I scrambled to my computer and googled his name. Declan Walsh had been covering the country for a decade, first for the Guardian, then as the bureau chief of the New York Times for Pakistan.

I know we, Pakistanis, are known for our hospitality, but after reading about him I learnt that we are also incredibly good at giving grand farewells to those who are not welcome in the country anymore. In 2013, before the general elections, he received a letter, ordering him to leave the country within 72 hours. Apparently, his work had irked those in power. He was given a glorious escort before getting deported on account of some “undesirable activities.”

I chose journalism as my subject for graduation program in 2015 after witnessing the impact of that story. It made me believe that through pen we can change the world around us.

He has also penned a book. The Nine Lives of Pakistan is going to be published in September 2020. Not sure where things are headed during this pandemic, but it is something worth waiting for and am looking forward to reading it.