Ace in accountancy

"I was blessed with amazing teachers who played a major role in my securing the first position in Pakistan in three out of the 13 papers,” acknowledges Farah Ferozepurwalla of Karachi. She scored the highest in Paper 5: Advanced Performance Management among all students from Pakistan and sixth highest globally in the December 2014 session for the examinations conducted by the London headquartered Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the global professional accounting body that has over 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries.

Farah Ferozepurwalla: paper topper

"The passing ratio for the Professional Level papers (P1-P5) has varied from 28%-56%... (with) the pass rate for P5 in December 2014 being 30%. This P5 was my last towards becoming an ACCA affiliate,” mentions Ferozepurwalla in response to Parsiana’s email queries. "The ACCA is a very flexible professional accountancy qualification with two exam sessions, one in June and the other in December, giving students the ease to sit for exams as and when they wish (with)… a maximum of four papers in each session.” Planning a career in accountancy and finance, Ferozepurwalla is currently working at ICI Pakistan Limited.
Describing herself as "a proud Mamaian” who studied at The Mama Parsi Girls’ Secondary School, she achieved the first position throughout Karachi in her matric board examination. She then joined the College of Accounting and Management Science from where she did her Intermediate BCom and ACCA’s 13 papers. The final P5 paper she studied under Rizwan Mania at the KnS Institute of Business Studies.
Describing herself as "a fun loving person who enjoys cycling and playing volleyball and other outdoor games,” the 22-year-old achiever clarifies that her favorite hobby is painting, arts and crafts, making cards, showpieces or stitching something which she considers "a source of relaxation.”
Her family in Karachi includes her father Dhunjishaw, chief accountant of the Cowasjee Group, mother Dr Shernaz, a family physician at the Aga Khan Diagnostic Center, and sister Gulshan, also an ACCA, a student of Chartered Financial Analyst Level III and a manager in the Enterprise Risk Management department at Faysal Bank Limited. Additionally, "I am very lucky to have my grandparents and all my aunts, uncles and cousins here with me in Karachi,” she states.
"We Zoroastrians, I feel, are a very peace loving, generous, compassionate and a closely knit community,” believes Ferozepurwalla, adding, "My religion has taught me to be tolerant, loving, empathetic, down to earth and honest in all endeavors of life. The Zoroastrian religion summarizes the complete code of life into humata, hukhta, hvarashta — good thoughts, words and deeds.”