According to the article published in New York Times on May 18, 2015 Axact, a very well known IT company in Pakistan which claims to be the largest Private sector company in Pakistan was offering degrees and diplomas online through number of fictitious schools and colleges and making millions of dollars per month. New York Times claims that we asked several times the high officials of Axact for an interview and clarify on the situation but in response what we received was a letter from its lawyers accusing the times reporter. The articles includes information by the ex-employees of Axact about the working of the company. NY Times has highlighted that Axact is running many websites of online universities providing programs and then issuing degrees that are fake and completely useless, their websites use impressive faculty member pictures and testimonials of students and faculty that are actually paid actors. The websites have American toll free numbers but in reality the calls were received in the call centers located in Karachi.
There have been several interviews with employees who agreed to share information if their identity was not revealed. They said that we were supposed to sell degrees even with manipulation and then forcing them to spend more on the degrees by faking calls from US officials saying that you need to get your degrees certifies by fake officials that made more money for the company. All these websites were funding Axact. People have also sued some websites of Axact for giving fake degrees once they found out that their degrees were useless as any ordinary piece of paper. After the Axact scandal people had a number of questions for the company starting with, what are the products of the company? what is the client list and about the revenue reports of the firm. The strength of the company is questionable as they are about to start the biggest TV Channel of the country and thy are offering such high pay packages to the team which needs to be justified, the source of the funds needs to be clarified.
According to the allegations in the NY Times report Axact scandal involves forcing people to enroll for degrees in fake universities, than giving money for certification of the degree and they have also used fake signatures of the American Sectary of State Mr. John Kerry . Axact needs to clear its name from all these allegations as this is a threat to all the IT Sector Companies operating in Pakistan. The CEO of Axact on several occasions said that he wants to grow so much that he wants to be the richest man. some times he was referred to be chasing Bill Gates. All his ambitions, future plans and claims to be the largest IT company of Pakistan are in doubt now and need big time clarification. Many of Pakistan’s fresh graduates use to dream to be hired in Axact due to their high pay packages and perks but now all of them are doubtful about the company’s prestige.