• Employees and dependent family members are directed to refrain from investment in any issuances of client firms. Declaration to this effect is made by all staff members, engaged in business acquisition and analytical processes, on a semi-annual basis.
• Employees are further expected to declare any relationship, whether personal or business, with any client firm or any of its key staff.
• Any non-public information received in a fiduciary capacity is held in trust and not used for personal gain or divulged in any manner.
• Furthermore, at company level, IIRA will only place deposits with Islamic banks and strictly adhere to the policy of not investing in any securities rated by IIRA or any securities issued by entities rated by IIRA.

VIS is approved by Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan and is recognized as an ECAI by State Bank of Pakistan for providing independent rating services in Pakistan. VIS has strong presence in Pakistan's financial market and has ratings outstanding in all major areas including banking, takaful, asset management and corporate debts including major sukuk issuances.

VIS provides management services to IIRA in addition to assistance under the technical partnership agreement.

Is a domestic credit rating agency in Malaysia. MARC has several ratings outstanding in the areas of corporate debt, project finance debts and structured instruments. 60% of the ratings (MYR134 billion) an-nounced by MARC over the first 14 years were sukuk programmes. These also included domestic ratings for Ringgit-denominated debt issued by foreign entities on the national rating scale.

Ms. Sabeen Ahmad is the Chief Executive Officer of IIRA. Ms. Sabeen has 25 years of multifaceted experience in economic and financial risk evaluations spanning Sovereign risk, Banks and non-Financial firm-level and instrument risks, as well as Fund Managers and Insurance Companies, with specialized focus on Islamic finance in all of these areas. She has been associated with the credit ratings industry for over two decades and has pioneered ratings in the social sector of Pakistan, while also being actively involved in research endeavors of significance in the area of Islamic finance. Notable among these is the development of concept papers embedding an appreciation of Islamic finance related risks within credit ratings, delineating approaches to evaluate Fiduciary risks in Shari’ah complaint entities, contributing to industry level efforts at standardizing such evaluations and developing and extending financial and non-financial risk evaluation models.

She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

Ms. Farah Parveen Khan has been associated with Islamic International Rating Agency as an analyst since Aug. 2016. She has over 10 years of experience in credit ratings covering corporate and financial institutions (FIs) domains. Prior to joining IIRA, Ms. Farah was associated with CRISIL – an S&P Global Company in India, for about 9 years. She was involved in corporate ratings from a third party agency perspective whereby she assisted and closely collaborated with the S&P analysts. During her tenure at CRISIL, Ms. Farah covered various regions and industry sectors, - Asia-Pacific commodities sector (sub-sectors including metals & mining, oil & gas, building materials & forest products, and chemicals), and U.S. media and entertainment. She had received a few credit-in-prints on various issuer publications and was acknowledged for her work and contribution.

Ms. Farah is a BMS graduate (elective in Finance) from University of Mumbai and has completed the intermediate level (CA PE-II) of Chartered Accountancy from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

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Dr. omar Hafiz is an associate professor of Islamic finance in King Abdulaziz university. He is A Saudi citizen born in Almadina in 1950 and got his Ph.D from Indiana University bloomington USA in 1981 and a bachlor degree in islamic studies in 2005 from king Abdulaziz university. He joined department of Economics in 1981 after graduation for Around 9 years where he served as chairman of the department and director of the first international research center in islamic economics. in 1990 he left the university for working in Islamic Finance industry where he worked for Islamic Development Bank for around 15 years and for other islamic finance and Takaful institutions for more than 10 years.He published some books in Arabic and supervised a lot of dissertations in islamic economics, and in 2017 He returned back to his university to work in Islamic Economics Institute

Mr. Faheem Ahmad was recognized among top 500 Islamic personalities by Islamica500. www.islamica500.com/download.html.Faheem Ahmad is the founder of the VIS Group, Pakistan. He has top level management experience at international level in the fields of credit rating, and Islamic and conventional financial risk assessment modeling. In 1997, he formed a JV with a leading rating agency of USA, to form DCR-VIS. JCRA joined JCR-VIS subsequent to DCR’s merger with Fitch. JCR-VIS is currently a prominent financial services provider in Pakistan and is recognized by all relevant regulatory authorities as a full service rating provider.In 2001, Mr. Ahmad participated in the establishment of Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) in Bahrain. In 2011, he developed and launched a ‘Fiduciary Rating System’; capturing Mudarib's quality, governance and compliance with Shari’a principles. IIRA now has mandates in 11 Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Sudan, Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and UAE.In 2002, he was a member of the founding team that established the Association of Credit Rating Agencies in Asia (ACRAA), headquartered in Manila. ACRAA represents 30 rating agencies in Asia. In December 2013, recognizing his commitment towards ACRAA, Mr. Ahmad was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. During his association with ACRAA, he has also served as the Chairman of the Best Practices Committee, he played a leading role to develop “ACRAA Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Domestic Credit Rating Agencies” and important publications, including ‘Credit Ratings – The Basics Revisited’, ‘Rating Shopping'. In this regard, Mr. Ahmad in 2012, conducted a study, funded by ADB, for the development of ‘Idealized Default Curves’ for mapping national scale ratings to facilitate cross border fund flows.Mr. Faheem Ahmad also serves on the Board of Directors of CRISL, Bangladesh, a company he helped found in 2003. CRISL has since grown to be one of the largest and most prominent rating agencies in Bangladesh and is recognized by all relevant, national, regulatory authorities.

Mr. Shehab is a holder of Master in Business Administration, University of Hull, UK. He Has over 37 years of banking experience gained in senior positions with various international financial institutions, both Islamic and conventional.He commenced his career with Habib Bank Ltd in 1973, later worked with (then) Chase Manhattan Bank, Bahrain, Bank of America, Bahrain, American Express Bank, Bahrain and Bahrain Middle East Bank, Bahrain.After a successful career with Shamil Bank of Bahrain (formerly Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain), he was appointed as Assistant Chief Executive Officer – Operations at Bahrain Islamic Bank in 2002, and thereafter joined Al Baraka Banking Group in May 2006. Mr. Shehab is a Board member of Banque Al Baraka D’Algérie, and Al Baraka Bank Ltd Pakistan.

Mr. Zubair Nawaz Chattha has been associated with the Gourmet family business since his early days. Gourmet Group, a family enterprise, is the most diversified food and beverage manufacturing group of companies in Pakistan, with a product range of approximately 800 items of confectionery, bakery, dining, dairies, ice cream, traditional delicacies (Sub continent sweets), carbonated drinks, juices, jams and condiments.Mr. Zubair bears an impressive profile detailing an unprecedented track record bedecked and evenly interspersed with illustrious achievements and services on various fronts during his professional career.From his educational record to professional acumen, Mr. Zubair Nawaz Chattha stands out par excellence. After completing his B.A, he went for a graduation in law and completed his LLB in 1992. He also holds degree of LLM. On the academic front he has had renowned institutions among his alma maters, including University of Punjab, Lahore and Harvard Law School USA.

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Mr. Adel Al Mannai has been associated with IIRA since 2007 as an external member of the rating committee. He has a 23 year banking and finance career with a number of well established and renowned financial institutions. Before that he was associated with Investors Bank, Shamil Bank, Khaleej Finance and Investment Company, Mashreq Bank, ABN AMRO Bankm Arla Bank International and Al Bahrain Arab African Bank. He has an MBA from University of Glamorgan Wales U.K. and has attended numerous workshops and training programs during his professional career.

Mr. Javed Callea has 36 years of experience mostly in the financial institutions, in addition to his contribution to the services and infrastructure sectors in Pakistan. He has held the position of Chief Executive of a leasing company for 10 years. His core areas of expertise covers leasing, development financing, project management, investment & merchant banking, strategic investment management and Real Estate. He has also served as Member Finance of Water & Power Development Authority of Pakistan where he gained experience of social, economic and financial impact of infrastructure projects. During his career he has served on the Boards of several Banks, financial institutions, industrial concerns and as the nominee director of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan on the Board of Karachi Stock Exchange. He earned his MBA degree from the Institute of Business Administration in 1974, and has attended various seminars and conferences locally and internationally.

Mr. Sharidan Salleh is the Assistant Vice President of Ratings responsible for the ratings in the banking, insurance and oil & gas sectors, among others. He has 13 years of working experience in the local financial services industry in the areas of credit, investment research and private equity investment.Mr. Salleh began his career at RHB Bank Berhad where he worked in its Business Banking Group. He later joined local pension funds, the Employees Provident Fund and Retirement Fund Inc, in their investment research and investment operation departments. Sharidan graduated with BBA (Hons) Finance from Universiti Teknologi MARA and obtained his MBA (Applied Finance and Investment) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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Dr. omar Hafiz is an associate professor of Islamic finance in King Abdulaziz university. He is A Saudi citizen born in Almadina in 1950 and got his Ph.D from Indiana University bloomington USA in 1981 and a bachlor degree in islamic studies in 2005 from king Abdulaziz university. He joined department of Economics in 1981 after graduation for Around 9 years where he served as chairman of the department and director of the first international research center in islamic economics. in 1990 he left the university for working in Islamic Finance industry where he worked for Islamic Development Bank for around 15 years and for other islamic finance and Takaful institutions for more than 10 years.He published some books in Arabic and supervised a lot of dissertations in islamic economics, and in 2017 He returned back to his university to work in Islamic Economics Institute

Ahmed Darwish is the CEO of BOK International. He achieved various milestones in the past few years, where he established the finance departments in both Bahrain and UAE branches.

Mr. Darwish brings with him more than 15 years’ experience in the banking and investments sectors. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) from the New Hampshire Board of Accountancy, Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA) from Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from University of Bahrain.

Prior to joining BOKI, Mr. Darwish worked at Sage Capital as Vice President – Head of Financial Services, where he was an active member of the board of directors of several subsidiaries, charged with representing and protecting the interests of shareholders. He was also responsible for establishing the Finance, Operations, Human Resources and Administration departments at Tadhamon Capital, as Director of Finance and Operations. Prior to that, Mr. Darwish worked at Ernst & Young as an external auditor of leading banks and financial institutions in Bahrain.”

Mr. Faheem Ahmad was recognized among top 500 Islamic personalities by Islamica 500. www.islamica500.com/download.html.

Listed among the top 5 CEOs in Pakistan 2015/2016. https://pakwired.com/top-ceos-pakistan-2015/ .pakwired.com/top-ceos-pakistan-2016.

Faheem Ahmad is the founder of the VIS Group, Pakistan. He has top level management experience at international level in the fields of credit rating, Islamic and conventional financial risk assessment modeling.

In 2001, Faheem participated in the establishment of Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA) in Bahrain. In 2011, he developed and launched ‘Fiduciary Ratings’; capturing Mudarib's quality, governance and compliance with Shari’ah principles. IIRA now has mandates in 14 Islamic countries.

In 2002, he a member of the founding team that established the Association of Credit Rating Agencies in Asia (ACRAA), with an office in Manila.

Mr. Ahmad served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ACRAA from 2014-17. He is now serving as the Vice Chairman/Ambassador for International Relations. ACRAA has members from 30 rating agencies in Asia. In 2010, as the Chairman of the Best Practices Committee, he contributed to “ACRAA Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Domestic Credit Rating Agencies” and important publications, including ‘Credit Ratings – The Basics Revisited’, ‘Rating Shopping'.

In 1997, he formed a JV with a leading rating agency in the USA, to form DCR-VIS. JCRA joined JCR-VIS subsequent to the DCR’s merger with Fitch in 2001. In 2019 JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company was renamed as VIS Credit Rating Company Ltd., after JCRA sold its interest, however, JCRA remains a technical partner.

As a founder in 2003 and 2005, he helped to establish CRISL, Bangladesh and Islamic International Rating Agency, Bahrain. He is also the founder of Borhan Credit Rating Agency Iran. He has established National Investor Services (NIS), Turkey in 2019.

Mr. Shehab is a holder of Master in Business Administration, University of Hull, UK. He Has over 37 years of banking experience gained in senior positions with various international financial institutions, both Islamic and conventional.

He commenced his career with Habib Bank Ltd in 1973, later worked with (then) Chase Manhattan Bank, Bahrain, Bank of America, Bahrain, American Express Bank, Bahrain and Bahrain Middle East Bank, Bahrain.

After a successful career with Shamil Bank of Bahrain (formerly Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain), he was appointed as Assistant Chief Executive Officer – Operations at Bahrain Islamic Bank in 2002, and thereafter joined Al Baraka Banking Group in May 2006. Mr. Shehab is a Board member of Banque Al Baraka D’Algérie, and Al Baraka Bank Ltd Pakistan.

Mr. Zubair Nawaz Chattha has been associated with the Gourmet family business since his early days. Gourmet Group, a family enterprise, is the most diversified food and beverage manufacturing group of companies in Pakistan, with a product range of approximately 800 items of confectionery, bakery, dining, dairies, ice cream, traditional delicacies (Sub continent sweets), carbonated drinks, juices, jams and condiments.

Mr. Zubair bears an impressive profile detailing an unprecedented track record bedecked and evenly interspersed with illustrious achievements and services on various fronts during his professional career.

From his educational record to professional acumen, Mr. Zubair Nawaz Chattha stands out par excellence. After completing his B.A, he went for a graduation in law and completed his LLB in 1992. He also holds degree of LLM. On the academic front he has had renowned institutions among his alma maters, including University of Punjab, Lahore and Harvard Law School USA.

Mr. Husam Alakhal holds master’s degree in finance and bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Jordan. He has more than three decades of experience in banking in recognized commercial and development banks with focus on credit and risk management. His expertise covers managing and reporting on portfolio risk profile and risk assessment of all types of financing and investment operations; covering sovereign lending, project finance, corporate finance, trade finance, financial institutions, treasury transactions, and equity investments.

Mr. Husam worked with Arab Bank, Jordan from 1988 to 2002 and his latest position was head of specialized financing unit. During his work with this major regional financial institution, he played important roles in establishing the Bank’s leasing subsidiary, Arab National Leasing Company, the Bank’s acquisition of Amman Investment Bank, and the Bank’s proposals for the privatization of some public entities.

Mr. Husam joined Islamic Development Bank in 2002. Throughout his work with this multilateral financial institution, he worked, as head of credit risk division, on building the infrastructure of the credit risk function in terms of frameworks, policies, guidelines, systems, models, processes etc., covering loan origination, risk measurement, exposure management of loan and banking books, portfolio management and reporting, etc. He was a member of Bank’s rating team and the risk management roadmap team for instilling an ERM solution for the Bank.

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