CA Murderer and Our Combined Mental Illness: Letters to Editors
By Concerned Father
I completed my ACCA when most of you never even heard of this qualification way back in 2001 and then joined a prestigious audit firm and completed my CA and now I’m working in a treasury department of a renowned bank. In this last decade, I witnessed the growth of accountancy qualification and how a well reputed career choice turned into a nightmare with stories of joblessness, suicides and now even a murder. 
I’ve been on PakistanACCA for last 8 to 9 months and was surprised by the growth of accountancy media in a country like Pakistan. After few weeks, after exhausting myself with many articles and many comments, I realized that our prospective chartered accountants are nothing but a bunch of confuse monkeys. They are continuously complaining that there aren’t enough jobs and they are sick of their own qualification and they even disgraced renowned professional bodies. I wrote an angry letter to PakistanACCA and went into great length of discussion with the editor as what the hell is going on? He shared his knowledge and I shared mine and we conclude a long list of problems.
I always planned to write an article and contribute something to help my young friends but my job demands and consumes most of my times. But what I read yesterday, when there was news of a CA student who killed his parents just because they taunt him because he was continuously flunking his exams, I was concerned and feel sad. I’m a father of two girls aged 3 and 5 and it was really hard for me to accept this accident.
But the most disgusting thing was the kind of comments I read on LinkedIn and facebook groups I’m connected with. And I started to believe that there are many more murderers out there waiting for their turn.
Students started arguing that this is because of the rigid ICAP exam policies or it was parents’ fault and they should be more supportive. Do you really think that it was parents’ fault? Do you really think that they enjoy taunting you when you flunked?
Friends, parents are the only human being on Earth who took pride in your success and would be more sad than you when you flunked your exams. Many of the parents I know in my family and friends never even graduated in first place but still they manage to send their sons and daughters to this prestigious and expensive qualification just to see them successful. Most of those parents had no idea what ICAP or ACCA is? They had no idea what exactly a Chartered Accountant’s job is? But just because they witness successful people in their circles who happened to be Accountants – they want you to follow their footsteps.
And still – There were people out there who were asking Parents to be more supportive.
I don’t know whether that student really killed his parents or not. It will be proved in court of law ultimately. But, if this is true, this is a simple case of insanity. Mental illness is a common problem and we, as a society in Pakistan, simply ignores to accept it.
My point here is that this is not a mistake from ICAP or Parents or your demanding syllabus. Our students need to develop an understanding that they cannot always raise fingers outside and start putting blame. They need to realize and accept the challenges of Accountancy Qualification and current economic conditions.
Your CA exams are a part of your Life, not a Life itself.
The writer is an investment banker. Letters written to PakistanACCA reflect readers thoughts, feelings and experiences. PakistanACCAmay or may not, partially or fully, agree with content of these letters.
You can write to us by visiting this page or email us here: letters.pakistanacca [a] gmail.com (remove spaces and replace [a] with @ )
Comments (15)
I agree.
very well written.
Agreed
i totaly agree wid u sir
I think thats an interesting pespective on a complex issue. I’m not going to comment on the specific incident as just like everybody, I am not fully aware of the circumstances behind the ghastly act.
However I don’t think there’s a uniform or simple solution to this matter. IMO which could be wrong, every stakeholder has a certain degree of responsibility whether its the accountancy body,parents/family and obviously the student. In my experience as an accountancy student/professional, we have always tried to shy away from our own responsbilities both at the individual level and collectively.
The accountancy bodies including their affiliated colleges are more concerned about roping in as many students as possible without focusing more on their core responsibilities like development & provision of quality study material and proper guidance to students, qualified and dedicated teachers instead of the part-time ones and comprehensive exam support resources especially identifying areas where students need to work harder and common errors. Perhaps they also need to look into independent reviews of exam papers every session and the results instead of assuming that their personnel can do no wrong because at times there are things in questions which are not specificlly outlined in the syllabus. As much as our accountancy bodies would like to deny it is possible there are errors in the setting of the exam paper, its marking and the results process.
Parents also need to recognise that just because they think/know accountants who make a lot of money it becomes an automatic career choice for their children. Yes we’re living in economicically challenging times but that does not mean we push our kids into careers which they do not want to get into or which perhaps they do not have the aptitude for. Moreover, if a student is having difficulty in clearing his exams, its not because he/she is dumb – there could be a number of reasons like luck,poor exam prep,mental issues. So my request to parents/family members would be to please try to help in identifying the problem so that the student can overcome it and passthe exams.
Finally, the accountancy student who’s trying to blame the failure on every thing under the sun but himself/herself. Nobody said these exams were going to be easy and if a student wants to think question spotting or selective study is going to get you through – then you’re in for a long and painful accountancy exam rollercoaster ride. Having tried this approach myself a number of times (and also successful on a number of occasions) I can tell you that your luck will eventually run out as I discovered in my case. There is no magical shortcut to the long and tiring hours of study,exam practice and prayers. And blaming ICAP or some1 else who’s never going to listen to your point of view anyway is not going to solve anything. So work,work and more work is the only approach cos everything else is futile. There might be times when despite everything under your control – you just don’t pass but don’t lose hope and increase your efforts, keep praying bcos even if every1 and everything else is pitted against you – trust in the ALMIGHTY and after you’ve done everything possible , leave it to HIM.
(My apologies for the long post but I just had to put these things across. Thank you for bearing with me.)
100% agreed……….
I’ve read the fathers’ opinion but there are few challenges other then economic and academic pressures…. that’s why students in Pakistan, students are facing this kind of mental illness.. it’s not about the qualification being modified but there are few pressures which are unwanted by students that are irresistible… here some parents should get some awareness about the field of accountancy or any other if any.. i’m here saying this because i’m currently doing Acca and I’ve done my b.com myself privately.. My parents did not allowed me to take admission in CAT back then when i started this field although Al-hamd academy suggested my parents to take admission in CAT before starting Acca because i was from engineering background.. i entered in this through MSER route… i pay my expenses and my fees (examination + tuition) myself.. because im able now to teach accountancy to high school level (A-level + intermediate) .. there’s no consideration from anywhere for me even i try to make my parents to understand my situations.. I have transportation issues from where i live in karachi that is MAYMAR yet i travel from buses… tell me if i get some still my Parents taunt me, scold on me if i get fail in Acca papers and taunt me as i’m not able to be a support in my house although they are aware that i dont get time because i teach and study as well.. we are not severely financially disturb MASHALLAH..
now tell me anyone! who will help me here if my parents are not here to help me out??
i get tired and stressed out but still work hard to pass my exams but it’s being 4years and still i’m not affiliated yet!!! plus now I’ve medical issues in the middle of this, what should be done then?? do you think they are thinking regarding of my health??
I know and it’s obvious that if this student killed his parents, this would be an insanity to high order and it’s not a solution.. but how can a human mind be in the same line of stability?? it’s not in our control…
Last thing i would like to ask you people that were u there when the boy was suffering or do you have any idea what he had gone through??? or do you people suffered same kind of pressures??? If not!! then how can you blame on students like this on what basis???
reply me with solutions to my problems..
Regards,
Shahbaz Khan
I totally agree with omers’s long but yet meaningful post. even if it is the students choice to take accountancy for his career, he/she will not know about its depth until they put there feet in it. its just like you cannot image how deep is the water of a river until you go in and experience yourself. in the same way, if a student is having problem in clearing exams, parents should look for the core reasons first and should not blame the boy/girl directly. its like if you have a plant or a tree in your garden and you see that one of its leaf gets worms, then you cut that leaf out only instead of cutting the whole tree or plant. in the same way parents should first cut those obstacles out which caused such result.
As the writer (Concerned Father) said that its your parents who are much worried about you, in the same way its the parents where a boy/girl can look for support if he/she is facing any problem or hard time.but where he/she will go if his/her last hope has become a mental torturing cell. I am not saying that this CA student did a good act. No not at all. he made the worst mistake of his life. but the point is, who was there to support him when he needed someone desperately. NO ONE. so i think it is also parents fault to some extent which leads to such harsh results.
100% agreed…,and 1 more point If every one can do it,no one will wish to do it….think about it….
I agree with most of what has been written here. but, as a humble addition, concern for students and easing their mental exhaustion should at least be reflected in policies of our professional bodies.
By this, i am no way saying that mental sanity and moral decisions on part of students are responsibilities of ICAP and other professional bodies. However, allowing money grabbing adventure through colleges and institutes by opening gates for each and every one is not an advisable practice. It definitely helps colleges and bodies earning millions but, at the same time, students not tailored for accountancy get stucked in middle of their courses leaving them and their parents with more frustration.
Although it is responsibility of parents and students to make the right career choice that reflects their strengths, passion, and attitudes but, at the same time, judging students and their capabilities through entrance tests for screening the entrants would help the students identifying their potential as well as enable professional bodies to relax their passing percentage in favor of students as they progress further into their studies.
Regards
Agreed with both posts.. Following are the major couses but varies person to person ….
1: Suitability of student for the Field, i-e for ACCA/CA, due to pressure from parents/friends or due to keep joining hands with friend to continue together,
2: use of Short-cuts to pass, i-e relying on Guess/Selective Study
3: Use of Ineffective techniques though working hard but without understanding the paper pattern and testing style etc etc…
4: not taking studies seriously. this is mainly due to immaturity/starting professional studies too early etc etc….
There may be lot of reasons that vary person to person, case to case, these are not only the above, so everyone, getting difficulties in exams , have to consider his/her specific situation and then to ponder upen him/her and deciding what is the problem and how it can be mitigated…
and should not hesitate to get advice from someone experianced…
Agreed gentlemen.Actually the problem with our students is that they take studies lightly and don’t prepare for the exams according to the requirement of the examiner and the syllabus.They just want to go through by firing bullets in the air.They forget that the Accountancy is the vast and the practical field.It is not like the other qualifications that require cramming only,but it requires the thorough conceptual knowledge and its practical application in papers particularly in the Business management papers and be in touch with the current business scenarios. What i have analyzed that the most of our friends could not make in ACCA & CA Advanced stage is due to their ineffective approach.They on one hand ignores that what the examiner wants from them and how to tackle the question with the practical approach.Besides i think most our friends do not study on the proper times,they become very serious with their studies when just only 2,3 weeks are left in their exams.so result is that they could not cover the vast syllabus.They should design the effectual study plan according to their mental level.As for as the parent’s attitude is concerned they do this because they want to see their children successful.I completed the Cat and ACCA all papers in the first attempt with in the short span period of time of 2.5 years except of P7.P6(Advanced audit AND Advanced Tax at 49 both)I witnessed that my parents were more concerned on my failure in papers on hearing my result first time then me,this shows that they are concerned about my career and the success more then me.So parents can never expect any thing bad for their Children.
indeed Mr.Abdul Rauf Kehar there are some people that uses ineffective approaches or might they do not take their studies seriously in a proper way but, all students cannot be stereotyped in one place. Please there are some points where parents need to understand the level of child’s threshold. We should analyze the behavioral change in a student to know the reason that why is the change took place? and not only knowing is enough Parents should also find the solution according to it. There are some factors that should be consider in a way to find why students could not managing his career or studies.
I don’t say that Parents expects bad for their children but they can make mistakes thus they require some changes because after all they are HUMANS. and it’s child’s duty if he’s mature enough that he should make his or her parents to understand that how the World turned out to be so complex.
Totally Agreed…..
I just want to add that…at present may possibly job market shrunked but on the other way out expectations are sky high…and chanelled towards only audit firms or few financial institutions..due to this frustration is enhancing…my requst to all my fellows that dont blame ur parents or any one else….just lower bit of ur expectations….it will pave new ways surely….
knock it off……..you completed acca ….wow….in 2001…wow…..its alot different now for students….
I agree to some extent with shahbaz, omer, abdul rauf and concerned father.. Maybe they are quite right in their opinions..
I actually got goose bumps wen i read abt dis incident a couple of hours ago.
We really dun kno really dat who is the real culprit. I’m a student of ACCA Proessional module. I think we are no one to blame anyone, infact we hav flaws in ourselves.
Some of the reasons of failures of ACCA students in my opinion are:
Ineffective study, improper time management, blindly following tutor’s advices (who r jus concerned abt makin money) n above awl depression caused by people around us either by misguiding you OR discouraging you OR by reminding dat for how long you hav been in dis field n wen you are goin to complete this BLOODY Qualification n wen u wil get a job n bla bla bla…
As far as this issue is concerned (the murder case), i would like to say that i’ve actually seen parents taunting their children in a way as if they are not theirs. Some parents r jus soo much concerned abt MONEY, MONEY n MONEY…
They don’t want to spend on their children even if dey can, even if they can help them to get out ov dat stress n jus help them to concentrate on studying better..
n i’ve seen parents who are spending money but unfortunately those students don’t want to study.. they love tooo much to socialise dat dey dun hav tym to think abt their future, career, may be cuz dey dun hav worries to support their families…
Haah!! everything around me in dis field seems soo wierd to me.. I’ve seen soo much jealousy, bitchiness around me in girls, dun kno much abt guys..
But seriously, i feel dat only evils exist in dis field in face of students.. n one who is not an evil, is actually becoming one… I haven’t found a good person or student in this field yet who would give a right advice or suggestion to anyone that would help him/her get sth better.
I jus request all of you reading it, please please please try to help out others/ ur colleagues/ ur class mates/ ur fellow students, n do not misguide them, because in this way we might be able to reduce the amout of stress the students (of ACCA & CA) are having and we can help ourselves and others in achieving success..
I don’t know wat else i can say but i can pray for awl students out there..
MAY ALLAH HELP US ALL N Also dat suspected murderer.. Aaameen!!