Special editorial feature 
 

Special Editorial
Feature

Once IBA, Forever Ours!

“We left its gates long ago, but our alma mater never truly left us. It lingers in the echo of old laughter, the quiet corners where we dreamed, and the friendships that time could never erase. In its embrace, we grew—not just older, but truer to ourselves.”

By Shaheryar Azhar | August 2025


I was as much a reluctant business graduate as, later on, I was a banker. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, in Economics, English Literature, and Philosophy, I wanted to major in Child Psychology at an American university. But my parents couldn’t afford it. So, in quest of something better, I reluctantly landed up at IBA.

The first big change was the semester system. This was a radical shift from the rote learning and annual exams, the foundation of Pakistan’s education that I had known. But as under the rote system, I blossomed here too. It required rigorous discipline, daily study, and preparation, which my time at Cadet College, Hasanabdal, had drilled into me. An exam in the semester system could be given on any day without the slightest notice, and these surprise exams counted for a full 60% of the marks towards one’s finals. The rest of the 40% came from final exams.

What I remember most fondly and with extreme gratitude are my teachers and mentors, particularly the following:

Mr. Spencer - Pakistan Economics. He challenged and inspired us to learn what makes our country, Pakistan, tick.

Mr. Hashmi - Managerial Economics. This was the most important of all business subjects as it taught us to apply economic theory to business decisions, and Mr. Hashmi was its teacher par excellence.

Mr. Mumtaz Saeed - Advanced Management. My favorite teacher and my favorite subject.

Mr. Danishmand - Organizational and Human Behavior. An inspiring and fully rounded individual. My interest in Psychology came together in his class, in which I excelled.

Mr. Najam ul Hasan - Statistical Inference. He taught cost accounting, my weakest subject, but in the end, I became its master. It was most useful in my banking career. Thanks, Najam sahib.

Mr. Aziz – Mathematics & Statistics. My personal story about a statistical exam, which has attained mythical proportions: After a particularly important statistics exam, everyone went to the Dean’s office asking that the exam be repeated because the question was too tough. Dean asked how many would like it repeated, and everyone, except one, me, said they would. The exam, therefore, was retaken by the whole class, except me. When the results of the taken and not-taken exams were announced, I had scored 100% on an exam everyone had walked out on. How come? Well, my teacher, Mr. Aziz, got the credit because I listened carefully and mastered what he said: statistics was as much about the ‘method’ as the ‘concepts’. And I had the method figured out for that particular exam.

One cannot help but mention the IBA library when talking about the teachers. It stood tall in our lives for the extensive books and research materials it provided, particularly to those serious students who wanted to delve deeper into any subject. Not least, it was a great place to meet and converse with female students!

Thanks to the quality of business education at IBA, Citibank, my employer of 32 years, asked me, when I was only four years into my job, to come and teach the Finance module for three months at their Credit training center in Greece to the class of officer trainees. This class included top students and MBA graduates from Harvard, Chicago Business Schools, Wharton, and other star universities from the UK and India. In accepting the assignment, I felt fully prepared to confidently teach what I had learned at IBA.


Related to this anecdote is when I requested my boss at Citibank, halfway through my career, to be sent to Harvard for an executive course to supplement my learning. My boss said, “Before you asked, we had already discussed this in the management committee and with human resources and whatever else you may be deficient at, and I am not saying you are not, further business education is not one of them.”

When talking about the teaching faculty, one cannot help but mention the IBA library.

Thank you, IBA!
IBA, however, was not just all work. It was a lot of fun, too. There were picnics, concerts, singing, skits, and a lot of joking around. Newcomers at the hostel were ragged till they agreed to make a fool of themselves. Being stubborn, I resisted my ragging, leading to flooding my room with water from a burst hose. I still didn’t relent, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of the raggers. The sardar of the naughtiest was Irfan Marwat, in whose mouth, too, I had left a sour taste. One trick he played on the “nerds” he thought we were was to unplug and take the main electrical switch of the hostel and go party in Karachi while we were stuck in the dark, unable to complete our assignments. When I found out who the culprit was, I spilled the beans to the teacher in charge in front of the whole hostel, earning Marwat’s wrath. He never, however, repeated this stunt again. Finally, after zigzag tension between us, and after our graduation, we became friends. Behind Marwat’s mischievous self is a heart of gold!

We are the class of 1974. In 1973, girls were reallowed after an 8-year ban. What a bonanza for us! I met my wife of mashallah 51 years, Tasnim, there. We were the first “IBA couple” to announce our engagement while still students. Then followed an avalanche! IBA became a nuptial heaven too, but without compromising its academic excellence.

“To our alma mater—not merely the place where we studied, but where we became. In its halls, we found knowledge; in its people, we found purpose; and in its memory, we carry the best of who we once were and all we still hope to become.”

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