Head of ACCA Pakistan, Arif Masud Mirza, Communicate with Students on ICAP Notice

Its been a difficult time for ACCA Pakistan and its officials to deal with negative sentiments of ACCA students in Pakistan after ICAP instructed audit firms to refrain from hiring students of foreign qualifications.

Although industry experts are divided into their opinion with some saying that this notice was not intended for ACCA students, but for ICAEW.  ACCA students are reporting on social media and through their emails to PakistanACCA that the ground realities are different.

There is now no ambiguity that job market have been competitive for finance professionals due to the global economic crises and law and order situation in Pakistan.

Arif Masud Mirza, head of ACCA Pakistan, who have been praised as a Hero after Higher Education Commission offered Master Degree to ACCA members, has been under tough pressure from ACCA community after this notice. It was a brave effort to speak publicly on a sensitive issue.

Our sources inside ACCA reveled that they have been evaluating every options. (We’ll cover these options in later articles and I can assure you that all of you will be surprised).

After the announcement made by Arif Masud Mirza on ACCA’s facebook page, students produced hundred of negative comments rejecting the announcement. Unfortunately, some of these comments were rude and inappropriate. They even went to length to use words.

We encourage dialogue, discussion and even disagreement but not at the expense of using bad language. It was sad to observe such language.

Now I’m not sure what the heck ACCA social media team is doing. Normally they have been very active to delete comments, especially ours when we report about problems ACCA students are facing. But in this case, when they should be more active to censor language, they are sleeping.

We’re producing Arif’s message below. Please let us know what you feel about this issue:

Many of you are aware of a letter ICAP issued in early July which advised chartered accountant firms, as well as members, not to engage trainees of “other accounting bodies, particularly trainees of foreign institutes of Chartered Accountants or any other accounting body of similar nature.”

The letter also asked its recipients for details of trainees of other accounting bodies engaged by the Chartered Accountants firms as well as members.

I wanted to update you on ACCA’s actions as many of you have been asking “what has ACCA been doing?”Since ICAP issued this letter, ACCA has been trying to engage proactively with ICAP, to seek clarification about the letter’s content and to ensure this does not affect ACCA students seeking training opportunities in practising firms. ACCA has also co-operated fully with the Competition Commission of Pakistan who contacted us regarding ICAP’s circular.

As Head of ACCA Pakistan I want to reassure you that ACCA has explored every opportunity to work with ICAP to find a solution. We will continue our dialogue with them, and to remind them that we need to work together to enhance, protect and progress the best interests of the global accountancy profession, of Pakistan’s accountancy profession and business operations here in Pakistan.

I am disappointed that I cannot contact you at this stage with news of a more positive outcome. This is work in progress. It is now more than a month since ICAP issued their letter, but my team and I will continue with our concerted efforts to seek a turnaround in their thinking.

Mr Arif Mirza, Head of ACCA Pakistan