Culture, Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in Pakistan

The following vignettes have been written to facilitate discussion on D&I in the context of
Pakistan. Some are based on actual events while others on situations that often arise in
institutional settings in Pakistan. In reading these keep the following questions in mind:

1) Who is affected and what are the implications for each character?
2) What are the likely consequences of each event?
3) Are there rights and duties at stake?
4) What principles are involved?

Vignette A
Sundur Textile Mills employs fifteen male janitors whose task is to clean the executive
offices, the factory floor and all the bathrooms in the building. There are seven private
bathrooms for the executives, and ten bathrooms with several stalls for workers on the factory
floor and the offices. Tariq is one of the janitors at Sundur. He is assigned to cleaning the
office bathrooms. He gets to work at 7am and finishes by 6pm. His supervisor keeps him on a
strict schedule, for he is supposed to keep each of the multi-stall bathrooms gleaming on the
five floors that he is assigned to.

On a particular Monday when a couple of janitors have called in sick, Mr. Ahsan, one of the
senior officers at Sundur, asks Tariq to clean his private bathroom in the executive suite.
Tariq says he will but he doesn't get the chance to go up to the executive suite, since he is
covering for the other janitors as well. Mr. Ahsan’s secretary comes to fetch Tariq after he
has failed to turn up to the executive suite, but Tariq is so behind his schedule he asks the
secretary to find someone else to do the job. This brings Mr. Ahsan down to Tariq’s floor
where he promptly tells him that he is fired for not following the orders of one of the most
senior officers at Sundur Textiles.

Tariq isn’t sure if Mr. Ahsan should be taken seriously, for after all Tariq was following his
own supervisor’s orders. When Tariq finishes his work at 6pm he reports to his supervisor,
who tells him that he should not return to work tomorrow because he has been notified by
Human Resources that Tariq has been fired. Tariq pleads his case but his supervisor shrugs
his shoulders and tells him he has no authority to bypass Mr. Ahsan.

Do you agree with Tariq’s supervisor? What, if anything can be done?

Vignette B
Rehana is a domestic worker in Ahmed’s home and has been taking care of his children for
the past five years. Ahmed’s neighbor, Haroon is a physician and people in the neighborhood
often go to Ahmed to discuss their ailments with him. Haroon knows Rehana well, through
his wife who is the one that recommended Rehana when Ahmed was looking for a nanny for
his children. Ahmed’s wife and children are extremely happy with Rehana’s work.

Rehana often comes to Haroon to discuss her mother’s health conditions and gets
prescriptions from him. One day Rehana arrives at Haroon’s home in obvious pain, she
shows him large, painful boils on her back and arms that she says have been spreading across

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her body. Haroon is an experienced physician and immediately identifies her problem as
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is a bacterium that causes
infections in different parts of the body and is hard to treat because it is resistant to most
antibiotics. MRSA is also infectious, and people who spend time with MRSA patients are
likely to get the disease. Haroon prescribes Rehana some medicine but knows it would not be
easy to free her from the disease.

Should Haroon inform Ahmed about Rehana’s condition, knowing that her disease may
affect his neighbor’s children?

Vignette C
Trevor Castello is a Goan Christian from Karachi, who works in the sales department of a
multinational company. During his travels across Pakistan he became very good friends with
one of his colleagues, Rehman Qasim who is originally from Lahore but works in the same
department as Trevor in Karachi. Rehman insisted that on their next business trip to Lahore
Trevor stay with him at his family home in Lahore. Trevor accepted the invitation and they
arrived in Lahore to a warm welcome from Rehman’s very active grandmother, who
managed their family home in Lahore.

By the end of the week Trevor had become very comfortable in Rehman’s home and
developed friendly relations with the grandmother. He noticed that she was very strict with
her housekeeping staff. One afternoon when Trevor and Rehman arrived home earlier than
usual, Trevor walked up to the kitchen to get some water for himself. Before he could open
the kitchen door he overheard Rehman’s grandmother shouting at her Christian housecleaner,
“How dare you drink from this glass when you know that we have separate utensils for you?
You have now polluted it! You should know that people like you are not allowed to touch our
utensils or our food. If I ever see you do this again I will send you back to the village you
came from.”

Trevor returned to his room without the water. He felt quite disturbed but was hesitant to say
anything about this episode to either Rehman or his grandmother. What would you do if you
were Trevor?

Vignette D
Tazeen and Rehan, a young married couple, who are also successful entrepreneurs, visit the
northern areas on their vacation and are charmed by the rugged beauty of the mountains and
the glaciers. They decide to use up their savings to buy a small parcel of land to build a
summer home there, but are told that they don't have the requisite domicile. They are also
told that since they are not natives of the area no one will be willing to sell them their
ancestral property. They make several inquiries but come up with no leads.

Disappointed they return to Karachi, back to work and back to their old life. They often
discuss how unfair it is to be denied access to the only piece of land they ever wanted to
purchase. Both are the children of Mohajir parents, who left their land and property in India,
when they migrated to Pakistan post-independence. There is no ancestral village for them to
go to, like their non-Mohajir friends.

How real are the feelings of alienation that the two are feeling?

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Vignette E
Umar Hanson is a white American convert to Islam, who recently married a Pakistani woman
and moved to Pakistan. He has an MBA from a top business school in the US and experience
in the software market. As a recent convert, Umar is extremely devout, he has a long, blond
beard and wears a kufi and shalwar kameez all the time.

He interviews for a marketing position at an up and coming local software house in Lahore.
The team interviewing him finds his experience extremely relevant, but his appearance a bit
out of place for the hip and trendy market segment that they currently serve. The fact that he
knows no Urdu and has a pronounced American accent goes in his favor, because the
software house’s clientele is the Pakistani elite who are conscious about these things, but his
beard, kufi and shalwar kameez will be problematic for the same clients.

What should the interviewer panel do about this candidate?

Vignette F
Saima and Saad are a husband and wife that both work as professors at a local private
university. Both work under the same administration and have similar areas of scholarship
and teaching. When appraisal time rolls around both of them input the details of their past
year’s scholarship, teaching and service – the three areas tenure track faculty are graded on –
into the online appraisal system.

A month later the appraisal is returned to them with grading assigned by the Dean. Saima
finds that she has been awarded an A while Saad has been awarded an A plus. This doesn't
make sense to her because last year she published two papers in the top research journals of
her field while Saad was unable to publish any article that year. Her teaching evaluations
were also better than Saad’s. Saad and Saima are both doing a similar level of service.

What, if anything, should be done here?

Vignette G
Noreen is a second year MBA student at a local private university. She is sitting in the
cafeteria with a friend when she sees a commotion at the table next to her. A young janitor
and his supervisor are standing at the table where two boys are seated with their cups of tea.
The janitor tells the seated student that he found a wallet that apparently belongs to the
student, on the floor by the tea stall. The student angrily informs the supervisor that a five-
thousand rupee note is missing from the wallet and he wants his money back. The janitor
pleads innocence and argues that if he had really stolen the money he would not have brought
the wallet to his supervisor. The male student suddenly gets up in a fit of rage and slaps the
janitor. The supervisor apologizes to the student and tells him that he will get him the money
within two days and will deduct the same from the janitor’s salary.

Noreen has witnessed this entire episode. What should she do?

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Vignette H
Reem returned from Canada with a degree in psychology and was hired for an HR position
by a large consulting firm in Islamabad. Reem has dwarfism but this has not affected her
confidence. She is both bright and outspoken. Reem quickly develops a reputation for
empathy and competence at her firm. Her boss puts her in charge of several new projects.
Most of these are collaborative and Reem slowly begins to see the office politics at play,
especially when the work she has done gets taken over by one or two individuals who seem
to be really good at taking credit for assignments that they have not contributed to. At times
Reem gets upset enough to go to her boss in tears after being passed over on important
assignments or for not getting appreciated where she felt she deserved it. Her boss tells her
that the people she is complaining about are higher up the institutional hierarchy than he is
and he cannot do anything about it.

Saqib is one of the people Reem is angry with for routinely taking credit for work that she has
done. Frustrated at her boss’ response to her complaints she takes matters in her own hands
and writes an email to Saqib telling her that she feels disappointed that he would take credit
for her work. Saqib does not respond but soon Reem finds that she is no longer being invited
on the teams that originate from Saqib’s department. The situation becomes worse when
Reem finds that she has been bumped off a collaborative project on which she had put in a lot
of work. As the team lead, Saqib stops inviting Reem for meetings on this project. Reem goes
to her boss and tells him that she cannot bear to be taken off a project on which she had done
the bulk of the work. Her boss watches her wipe her tears and tells her that he is
uncomfortable with how emotional she is. He tells her that he has stopped sharing several
work related matters with her because he is afraid she may start to cry. He advises her to stop
being emotional if she wants to get ahead in her career.

Reem returns to her seat in a daze. She no longer feels sure of herself. If you were to advise
Reem, what would you tell her?

Vignette I
Haris is an energetic, pleasant and hardworking young man, who works at an advertising
agency. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which means that there are times when
he feels depressed and low, and at times he has manic episodes. He can manage to continue
with his work during the depressive periods but the manic episodes are severe enough that he
usually cannot leave his home. He takes medication for the disorder but this does not prevent
the occurrence of the episodes entirely.

Recently he had a two-week manic episode during which he even had to be hospitalized. He
had taken sick leave from work without giving anyone details about his sickness. When he
returned, people asked about his health. One of these people was his boss, an open minded
woman who has given Haris several opportunities to work with high profile clients and has
promised to begin sending him on international assignments. Haris is afraid that if he tells his
boss the truth about his disease, his boss probably will not fire him but the chances of sending
him on international assignments will be greatly reduced.

Should Haris open up about his disease with his boss? Why or why not?

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Vignette J
Farooq is an idealistic young man who has just returned from the US with a degree in social
work. He chooses to work at an NGO that works with marginalized communities all over
Pakistan, giving them small interest-free loans to start their businesses. The founder and head
of the NGO is a charismatic man who has spent the past twenty years building this NGO,
which is now of international repute and which has earned several national and international
awards for its work. Farooq is very excited to get a job as Deputy Chief Operating Officer in
this NGO.

The founder likes to give inspirational speeches to his workforce, urging them to work with a
voluntary spirit to serve the poor people of Pakistan. He tells them that they are better off
than their peers in other institutions even though the pay here is 20 percent less than those in
other organizations of a similar nature, because they are charging high rates of interest or riba
on the loans they give out while this institution provides interest free loans. He tells them that
the service they provide is pleasing to God Himself.

Farooq is initially infected by the founder’s zeal and looks at his work and those of others in
the institution with rose-tinted glasses. However, once he begins touring the NGO’s offices
around the country he begins to hear different narratives. On a recent trip to Sukkur, he meets
Imdad Ali, a field officer who was promoted to branch manager two years ago. Imdad seems
bitter and says that he is looking for opportunities in other organizations. He tells Farooq to
open his eyes and see that the people working in the field are as poor as the clients that they
serve. Imdad tells him that in the years he has worked in this organization he has become
disappointed by the disconnect he sees between the mission of poverty alleviation and the
poor compensation that the NGO gives to its field staff who come from poor households.
Imdad also tells him that he has been to the head office in Islamabad and is shocked at the
plush décor of the place, while his own field office hardly has any furniture at all – just a
single table and a durree.

How should Farooq process this conversation? How should he react? And what, if anything,
should he do when he returns to the head office.

Vignette K
Razia was promoted six months ago as head of HR in her consumer products company. She
is excited about the new role but begins to feel as if the other officers in the C-suite do not
take her as seriously as they do each other. All other executives happen to be men. She isn’t
sure whether she is imagining all this because she cannot pinpoint exactly what is it that
makes her feel this way. During meetings she feels her ideas are not taken as seriously as
those of others. The CEO nods his head encouragingly every time she speaks up during these
meetings, but there seems to be lack of follow through.

The company is expecting a high level delegation from Europe and has been holding
meetings the past few weeks to prepare for their visit. Two days before the European
delegation’s visit, the executives hold one last meeting to discuss last minute arrangements
and strategies. Razia was not invited to the meeting but found out about it through her friend,
whose husband is one of the executives attending the meeting.

Razia is enraged and the next morning she goes up to the CEO and tells him that she heard
about the crucial meeting that she was not invited to. The CEO tells her that he did not invite

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her out of concern for her family, for he knows that Razia has young children waiting for her
at home and the meeting was called at 6pm. The rest of the executives had wives taking care
of their children so they could afford to stay back.

How should Razia respond to this?