June 30, 2025: The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi (IBA Karachi) is an institution of excellence where
the welfare of the faculty, staff and the students is of foremost importance. Amongst its mission and core values,
non-discrimination and gender empowerment are those of which the IBA is profoundly committed towards and
have been widely recognized and acknowledged.
It is inevitable for disputes to arise, however, at IBA we adopt the policy to deal with all disputes in a non-
acrimonious and professional manner which is in consonance with our core value to have the ability and
willingness to accept and coexist with other opinions and behaviors. Moreover, IBA respects all legal and quasi-
judicial authorities and is committed to, subject to its rights, to challenge any decision, complying with the
decisions of all such authorities.
In the year, 2023, a complaint was filed by one of the former lecturers, of the IBA, namely Ms Zahra Sabri
[‘Complainant’], against the Registrar, IBA, which was placed before an Inquiry Committee established under the
Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010. In its opinion, the Inquiry Committee, which
is a merely recommendatory body, exonerated the Registrar, IBA, but issued certain recommendations, to the
Competent Authority, against the administration of IBA such as issuing a letter of apology and compensating the
Complainant in the sum of PKR 300,000. However, since the complaint was not against the administration of IBA,
therefore, the Competent Authority did not approve the recommendations of the Inquiry Committee.
The decision of the Competent Authority was challenged by the Complainant before the Provincial Ombudsman
Sindh. The recent verdict of the Provincial Ombudsman Sindh does not affirm the recommendations of the Inquiry
Committee but has only allowed the appeal of the Complainant, by directing the appointment of a new Competent
Authority to implement the recommendations, on the technical ground that the Competent Authority had no
power to review and/or disagree with the recommendations of the Inquiry Committee and that such
recommendations of the Inquiry Committee, followed by the decision of the Competent Authority, can only be
challenged before the Provincial Ombudsman Sindh.
IBA has challenged the decision of the Provincial Ombudsman Sindh before the Honorable Sindh High Court
because, based on legal advice, IBA is of the opinion that the powers of the Competent Authority have been
wrongly interpreted. The Honorable Sindh High Court, vide its Order dated: 26-06-2025, has been pleased to direct
the newly designated Competent Authority that the letter of apology and the cheque of PKR 300,000 shall not be
handed over to the Complainant till the decision of the case by the Honorable Sindh High Court. As the case is
pending, IBA reiterates that no Judicial forum or Quasi-Judicial forum has affirmed the recommendations of the
Inquiry Committee and that the issue as to whether the recommendations of the Inquiry Committee were legal
and valid is still to be decided by the Honorable Sindh High Court and in future proceedings before the Provincial
Ombudsman Sindh.
In the end, we expect that till the issue is finally decided by the abovementioned forums, no person pre-judges
and formulates opinions on the basis of the statements issued by any particular party or on the basis of
misinformation, false narratives and false allegations being spread on social media.
