The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday allowed foreign qualified accountants to gain professional training experience in local accounting firms.
Advocate Shiraz Zaka had filed a petition against Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) for not allowing the foreign qualified accountants holding UK’s Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification. In his petition, he submitted that hundreds of thousands of Pakistani students have completed their foreign accountancy qualification from the ACCA-UK and they were being deprived of professional training in the local accountancy firms which was a malpractice on the behalf of ICAP.
Submitting the directives issued by ICAP, which had barred the foreign accountancy qualification like ACCA, Zaka prayed the court to declare such directives void and illegal because these were “in violation of fundamental rights of students.”
Counsel of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) also submitted that both the qualifications of ACCA and the ICAP’s accountancy were equivalent to the master’s degree. He said that the foreign ACCA qualified students should not be barred from gaining training experience in accounting firms in Pakistan.
The counsel of the ICAP stated that ICAP has the authority to regulate the profession in Pakistan. However, he said that the Competition Commission of Pakistan had already declared the directives illegal.
After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh disposed of the petition by allowing the ACCA students to gain professional training from local accountancy firms or other institutes on merit basis. However, he placed the condition that preference will be given to the students registered with ICAP.
The court further declared that the directives of ICAP shall remain suspended in the light of the order of Competition Commission of Pakistan. While court also declared that there was no need for the ACCA students to register with ICAP before gaining training in an accountancy firm.
It is pertinent to mention here that this matter between the two competing accountancy bodies was sub judice for longer than last three years.
