There is no limit to it, it seems
Money is honey, my little sunny; a rich man’s joke is always funny. Or so an old maxim goes. But in case of apparent miscarriage of BOL TV following startling revelations of global fraud revolving around BOL’s mother organization (Axact), Shoaib Sheikh’s joke (‘Pakistan’s imminent biggest media enterprise’) has turned into a tragedy further putting a big question mark on state of journalism in the country. The mega-scam of fake degrees, meanwhile, mocks government institutions’ state of being under heavy sedation as well.
While hundreds of working journalists are in a state of future shock, many others feel proud over interior minister’s remarks about unlimited power of media. The corrupt and rusty government apparatus which miserably failed to unearth the scam till NYT reporter broke the scandal with bang also wants sweet credit candies to suck.
Our self-styled man of principles, yes Chaudhry Nisar, sings his own praises for not riding on a procrastination horse in launching an inquiry into the scam of fake degrees. He also boasts over high-speed (Red Bull-induced) performance of FIA which in real terms is nothing more than a broken-down vehicle parked since long at the doors of successive rulers.
Shoaib Sheikh’s brain child (Axact) allegedly sold fake degrees and diplomas across the globe and bagged billions of rupees. All this occurred neither in a day nor in a week, month or year. But no arm (big or small) of law enforcers could catch them. Why?
Adriana Lima once said: “From my hair to my toes to my nails. Everything’s fake. Everything! Even my heart is fake.” I don’t dare saying ‘everything’ but a lot of fake exists and flourishes in this country from housing societies to medicines and doctors, from religious leaders to police encounters, from investigative journalism to political parties’ manifestos, from educational institutions to FIRs and law-suits. Even when a help-line is set up for rescue related public complaints, it gets chocked with fake (hoax) calls.
The authorities who wasted no moment in nabbing the fake business must act with same fervor against fake housing societies robbing simpletons in every passing second. I bet you will find the tricksters who can beat Victor Lustig — the man who had succeeded in selling the Eiffel Tower a hundred-year ago – and steal George Parker’s fame of selling the Statue of Liberty, Grant’s Tomb, Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Art Museum and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Where are the authorities in case of established non-recognized educational institutions working in Pakistan? Can anyone check fake Homoeo/Unani/Poly-technical colleges operating in the country without meeting even 10 per cent laid-down criteria of relevant councils and selling registered but fake diplomas? These are the diploma mills in reality. Who will arrest the manufacturers and sellers of counterfeit medicines? Will interior minister make the fake scanners (the ones imported in haste from China under Rehman Malik) report pubic and when? How many police officials have been banged up over fake police encounters and registering false FIRs? When will FIA investigate the ever-emerging scams of fake (ghost) schools and employees? Is there any action or piece of legislation under consideration to nab fake pirs, aamils etc.? Why government machinery fails time and again to curb the fake overseas employment agents rackets? It may be shocking news for many that there are as many as 35,000 newspapers and magazines registered with Press Information Department (PID) and hundreds of such fake (dummy) publications are granted official advertisement worth billions of rupees every year. Any plan of action Mr. Nisar and Mr. Rashid? What about fake ID cards and passports? Will the certificates (SSC, HSC) going to be awarded to students in Sindh after massive and blatant exams cheating not be the fake ones?
Anyone and everyone in this country is encouraged to indulge in the fake-businesses when politicians make fake promises and claims like ‘bringing stolen wealth back from Switzerland’, ‘Ending load-shedding in three months’ etc. and employ fake attendance tactics on rolls of national and provincial assemblies. A number of elected parliamentarians feel no shame in getting fake medical bills approved from the parliament. They tell us about the achievement of forensic experts of FIA in Axact scheme but feel annoyed on questions about fake-political-alliance (Asghar Khan case). A half truth is a full lie.
Apart from agreed-upon fake businesses, every other thing is labeled as a ‘fake’. Khan says voters and elections were a fake therefore resultant parliament is a fake. Government says Khan’s rigging allegations and slogans of ‘change’ and ‘justice’ are a fake. Qadri claims JIT report on Model Town incident is a fake while the PML-N leaders think Sheikh-ul-Islam’s pious-movement is a fake. The liberals are convinced that jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir was a fake while the jihadis take liberals’ loyalty to the country as a fake.
The ordeal continues. The Axact scam also exposed ethics and standards of national journalism revealing real competence of country’s leading self-proclaimed investigative journalists who were belittled within no time by Declan Walsh’s scoop. Amazingly they either smelt no rat behind very unusual business model of BOL (no nose for news) which speaks volumes of their capacity and competence or just neglected the rotten fish in the broth as the taste was mouth-watering. They say when the coin is too close to eyes it can hide the stars.
Our media, in particular the electronic one, is continuously beating the drums and will never cease till the patient on the death bed reaches the grave. Shoaib Sheikh made illegal bucks, the other seths claim full throat, but don’t tell the people about their own fortunes and how was it accumulated. Shiekh challenged their business empires and was slaughtered midway. Saadi says the biggest enemies of a peacock are his own feathers. The master Axactian was in fact trapped by his own delusions of grandeur. The fate of application moved forward to FIA and NAB bosses by a journalist to check (unfathomable) resources of owners of other media houses is well known to all and sundry. I end with a dialogue from The Wild Bunch, “When you side with a man, you stay with him. And if you can’t do that, you’re like some animal, you’re finished.”
'When you side with a man, you stay with him. And if you can’t do that, you’re like some animal, you’re finished.” But here the leader of the people who sided (sided might be not the appropriate word here) with the Axact man jumped off the ship before everyone else. He proved to be a true leader – leading all the rest – to abandon a failed (ad)venture. But then what can you say that this same person remained the unchallenged leader of 'investigative journalists' since the dawn of electronic media on the horizon – and much before that. All this is a sad commentary on that state and the state of affairs within that state.
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