ICMA playing major role for the betterment of employment, economy in Pakistan

ICMA been successful in teaching online under the pandemic alarm

Interview with Mr. Zia ul Mustafa – President, ICMA Pakistan

PAGE: Tell me something about yourself and your career please?

Zia ul Mustafa: I am currently the President of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) for a three-year term i.e. 2018-2020. This is my second term as the President as earlier during the period 2012-2014, I also assumed the responsibility of President of ICMA Pakistan.

I am also currently holding the position of the President of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) which is a regional forum representing over 3,75,000 accountants having membership of the national chartered accountancy and cost and management accountancy institutions in the South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan.

I have professional exposure of over twenty years in corporate and public sector organizations i.e. manufacturing, construction, services, banking, and education. Presently, I am serving as the CFO & Business Administrator of Pakistan Expo Centers Private Limited, a corporate entity owned by the Government of Pakistan with a mandate to develop, operate and promote Expo Centers in major cities of Pakistan. I am performing duties in this company since its inception in 2005 and as its leading team member, I played vital role in developing project feasibilities; project financing, projects execution, organizational management, launch of successful business operations of Expo Center, Lahore. In recognition of such efforts I received an award from the Prime Minister of Pakistan. In addition to this, I am also serving as a member on the Board of Directors of Ignite – National Technology Fund, a company owned by the Government of Pakistan and administered by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.

I have worked with the Descon Engineering Ltd. as Financial Controller of the Mangla Dam Raising Project & Mirani Dam Project and with Rustam Group of Industries as GM Finance & Administration. I also served as an elected Board Member of Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG) for three years, as a Member Board of Directors of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited with the additional responsibility of Chairman, Board Audit Committee for three years.

Apart from having corporate and professional experience; I have travelled to over 20 countries and enjoy a good reputation as a corporate trainer.

PAGE: Tell us about the steps taken by ICMA Pakistan over the period of last one year for the betterment of students and members in particular and for the industry in general?

Zia ul Mustafa: 2020 has been an exceptionally tough year; and yet we have all persevered and some of us have gone above and beyond to beat the odds. The new year began with outbreak of the deadly coronavirus and it just spread like wildfire across the globe and negatively impacted the people, society, institutions and national economies. Pakistan was not an exception and to control the spread of the pandemic, the Government imposed strict and then smart lockdowns from March 2020 onward. All the educational institutions in the country, including ICMA Pakistan, were closed down with suspension of all physical coaching classes and members’ activities like seminars, workshops etc. The Secretariat of the Institute was also advised to work remotely from their homes and Alhamdulillah from the end of July 2020 the employees have been asked to resume their work in office with strict compliance of SOPs. We now expect and hope that normalcy would return and we will move forward.

ICMA Pakistan believes in the notion that there is always a blessing in disguise and so when the lockdown was imposed and academic institutions were closed down nation-wide, ICMA Pakistan immediately took a proactive approach by initiating online coaching classes for the students. It was a time when most of the academia were founding difficult to transform virtually. ICMA Pakistan take pride in the fact that it timely decided to go for digital transformation to ensure that learning does not stop.

From April 2020, the Institute initiated interactive live online classes nationwide for the students for all the courses. It was a challenging task to move all the physical classes to online; however, with the blessings of Almighty Allah, the Institute has successfully achieved this milestone. Another milestone towards digitalization during the lockdown period was the conduct of exams through ‘remote access’. This was a first-hand experience for the Institute and to the best of our knowledge ICMA Pakistan became the first professional accounting institution in Pakistan to conduct exams through remote exams. For the first time, the recordings of live lectures of all courses taught by nationwide faculty members were uploaded on the e-portal for the benefit of students, including working class students. Further, Institute move one step ahead to resolve the queries of students on respective courses and online exams, by arranging ‘Live Facebook Sessions’ with the title of ‘Faculty Lounge Session’. To facilitate the students disturbed due to the pandemic and its consequences, the Institute took a magnanimous decision to offer 25 percent discounts in coaching/re-coaching fee to the students which are much appreciated.

Pertinent to mention here that International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), in recognition of massive improvements in curriculum and examination processes has phenomenally raised the Institute’s status of fulfillment of “Statements of Membership Obligations” (SMOs) in its last update. The Institute also signed a “Strategic Partnership Agreement” with ACCA-UK under which fellow members of both Institute would be granted Associate membership on successful completion of the Membership Pathway Program. For this purpose, ICMA Pakistan has created a designated portal on its website for the ACCA members. Later in July 2020, ICMA Pakistan signed a MoU with the ACCA to jointly train the public sector professionals in Pakistan on international Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for enhancing the quality, consistency and transparency of public sector financial reporting in Pakistan.

For the betterment of the members and the management accounting profession, ICMA Pakistan has taken a number of initiatives, especially for the international recognition of CMA qualification. In this year the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) included CMA qualification by ICMA Pakistan in its list of recognized qualifications. This is a great achievement and would pave the way for increasing job opportunities for our members based in Gulf & Middle East. Similarly, ICMA Pakistan has become registered as a Foreign Branch Office in the UAE, which will give it the legal entitlement to work dedicatedly on enhanced recognition in this market. We can now organize more CPD programs for the capacity building of CMAs based in UAE. ICMA Pakistan has also been registered in Australia under the Corporations Act 2000 which will give it the legal privilege to conduct activities in that country. ICMA Pakistan also got membership of ‘International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)’ whose mission is to promote effective standards of corporate governance to advance efficient markets and sustainable economies world-wide.

ICMA Pakistan also launched an ‘ICMA Advisory Forum’ under which different Talks Shows were relayed on ICMA World TV — an online Business Channel of ICMA Pakistan.

ICMA Pakistan provide certified professionals to the corporate and industry sectors which serves directly or indirectly towards the economic growth of Pakistan. ICMA Pakistan also presents its recommendations on the issues and concerns of the business and industry to the Government for resolution. Considering the responsibility towards corporate sector, the Institute every year recognizes the efforts of corporate organizations having best disclosures of their annual performance and performance towards stakeholders and society by organizing the Best Corporate and Sustainability Report Awards (BCSRA). The Institute assesses annual corporate and sustainability reports of company’s belonging to different sectors and based on globally accepted benchmarks of disclosers and corporate reporting.

PAGE: How does ICMA Pakistan contribute to the economic growth of Pakistan?

Zia ul Mustafa: ICMA Pakistan is indirectly playing a pivotal role in the economic development of the country. The Management Accountants qualifying from the Institute have multi-dimensional roles in almost all the segments of the national economy viz. manufacturing, service sector, trading activity, capital market, financial institution, Government or a public sector organization. Our members are holding key positions from the level of General Manager to CEOs and CFOs, in the public and private sectors in Pakistan and by virtue of their professional qualification and multi-dimensional experience in finance, accounting, business and industrial operations, are playing a strategic role in advising the industries and organizations on how to optimize cost and achieve efficiency and compositeness which are so important for the sustained economic growth of any progressing country like Pakistan.

ICMA Pakistan regularly provides professional input to the Government in shape of pre-budget proposal inclusion in the Federal Budget to contribute to the interests of the national economy. Pre and post budget Seminars are also conducted where members give their valuable input with regard to taxation structure and required policy changes and adjustments which are shared with the regulatory bodies like SECP, FBR, SBP etc. Likewise, these regulators also approach the Institute for its professional input on proposed drafts of Rules and Regulations. The Institute gives its technical input and feedback on them after research and consultation with members. These initiatives signify the due contribution of ICMA Pakistan towards the economic growth and sustainability.

PAGE: Your views on the services of the members of ICMA Pakistan serving abroad and sending remittances to strengthen the economy of Pakistan?

Zia ul Mustafa: The CMA degree offered by our Institute is a globally recognized qualification and its demand is enhancing as more and more international bodies are recognizing the CMA qualification. Recently, the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) also registered ICMA Pakistan in its list of recognized qualifications and this would definitely increase employment prospects for our members in the Saudi Arabia market. ICMA Pakistan is already registered by relevant authorities in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia.

As far as the geographical demography is concerned, almost 20 percent of ICMA Pakistan members are serving overseas in different public and private sector organizations and contributing towards the economic development of respective countries. Out of the total overseas strength of our members, more than half is employed in the Gulf & Middle East i.e. 32% in UAE and 24% in Saudi Arabia. The other jurisdictions where our members are serving include Canada, Australia, UK and others.

Needless to say, that ICMA Pakistan overseas members are sending their remittances through banking channel to their families in Pakistan and thus contributing towards the economy of Pakistan.