The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi through its Center for Executive Education (CEE) launched the IBA Dispute Resolution Forum (IBA-DRF), to promote mediation as an appropriate means of resolving disputes, particularly in the civil/commercial space. The IBA-DRF is inspired by the Harvard Negotiation Project, a project of Harvard University on the issues of negotiation and conflict resolution.

The IBA-DRF is spearheaded by the ADR Team at IBA comprising of the following individuals; Navin Merchant, Nausheen Ahmad, Altaf Qureshi, Sohaib Saleem.

The IBA-DRF seeks to implement court based or non-court-based practices of dispute resolution and negotiation, by working on real world disputes, improving conflict intervention methods, providing education and training, and writing and disseminating conflict resolution techniques and practices.

Navin Merchant
Navin practices law as a litigating attorney in the High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 1988 under the name of Merchant Law Associates as a senior partner. In 2006, Navin joined the World Bank Group as a Program Head of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for establishing Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) practices with the superior courts and law ministries of the MENA countries. After 7 years stint at this job, in 2013 she resumed her law practice at Merchant Law Associates as a senior partner.

Her areas of expertise are Civil and Commercial Laws such as Intellectual Property, Debt Recoveries, Property Disputes, Breach of Contract, Service Terminations, Agency Agreement, Indirect Taxes such as Customs Duties / Sales Tax as well as the disputes with regard to GIDC, Gas and Electric Charges/Surcharges/ISPA etc. at the original civil / constitutional as well as appellate side of the High Courts and the Supreme Court and Tribunals.

She holds diploma in ADR from York University, Canada and is a CEDR accredited mediator and a master trainer. She is a regular faculty and a trainer of ADR/mediation at the Judicial Academy; Legal Aid Society; Aga Khan conciliation and Arbitration Boards and has conducted numerous trainings nationally as well as internationally. Navin also serves as a training faculty at CIArb, UK.

She also chairs the "International Chamber of Commerce - ADR Commission" (ICC- Pakistan), and also leads the "Dispute Resolution Forum" at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA DRF).

She is currently serving on the Boards of Otsuka Pakistan Ltd; Soneri Bank Ltd; Pakistan Exide. In the past, she sat on numerous local as well as international boards of AKDN Network such Aga Khan National Council of Pakistan, Aga Khan Housing Service of Pakistan, Aga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan Education Service of Pakistan, Aga Khan International Conciliation and Arbitration Board. She has also served as an honorary Secretary of the Board of the Governors of Aga Khan Hospital and Medical Collage Foundation (AKU).

Nausheen Ahmad
Nausheen Ahmad holds an LL.B. from Kings College, London, an LL.M. degree from the University of London and was called to the Bar from the Honourable Society of Grays Inn London. She is registered as an Advocate of the Sindh High Court. She was also accredited as a mediator and master trainer by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, UK. Currently, she serves as the General Counsel, Company Secretary & Head of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs at ICI Pakistan Limited. Having spent over three decades in the corporate sector, Ms Ahmad brings with her a tremendous amount of experience and expertise in the legal field, as well as proven leadership skills; this experience includes working as a Legal Counsel at Pakistan Petroleum Ltd., Unilever Pakistan Ltd. and ICI Pakistan Ltd. before moving onto Habib Bank Limited as the Company Secretary and General Counsel.

Barrister Altaf Qureshi
Altaf is a barrister of England and Wales and an advocate of the High Courts of Pakistan. He is a partner at Ijaz Ahmed & Associates and an associate member of Hardwicke, Lincoln's Inn, visiting faculty at IBA, a member of INSOL International, a member of the International Bar Association, a member of Select Counsel in San Francisco and a mediator with ADR ODR International. Altaf holds an LL.B from SOAS, University of London, an LL.M from Columbia University.

Mohammad Sohaib Saleem
Sohaib is a lawyer and an Assistant Professor at IBA Karachi where he teaches corporate and commercial laws. He has worked as a corporate in-house counsel in large corporates such as Karachi Electric, Pakistan State Oil and Kalsoft. He has studied Negotiations and International Commercial Arbitration from UC Berkeley. Sohaib holds an LL.B from University of London and an LL.M from University of California, Berkeley.

Rahim

Why choose IBA-DRF to resolve your disputes?

IBA Dispute Resolution Forum's Panel of Mediators includes experienced accredited mediators with various professional backgrounds, which allows the parties a wide range of options for the selection of their mediators or neutrals according to the nature of the dispute. IBA-DRF also requires its mediators to demonstrate a commitment to continued professional growth in the underlying principles and competence in mediation skills.

With a staff of experienced international lawyers, the IBA-DRF not only handles the settlement of disputes but also provides support in contact drafting. A properly drafted dispute resolution clause will help ensure that your interests are protected when a dispute arises. We provide a variety of model clauses exactly for this purpose. Parties, themselves can also draft their own clauses to suit their specific needs.