Insurance Can Be Used As A Good Social Welfare Tool in Pakistan: Chairman UIG Mian Shahid

Ethical practices by insurance companies, agents stressed
Dishonesty harmful for personal life, fatal in business

Chairman of the United International Group (UIG) Mian Shahid has said that insurance is a good social welfare tool that can have a positive impact on businesses and lives of millions.

Insurance if used properly can help people in hard times by transferring their losses, he said.

Speaking at launching ceremony of UIG News, he said that insurance is popular in west but it is yet to make inroads in the east for which the insurance companies are partly responsible.

 

He said insurance can only be made popular when companies prefer interests of customers over their own interests and spend part of their profit on social uplift of the dispossessed.

Mian Shahid said that UIG has planned to launch a campaign to create awareness among masses regarding different insurance schemes.

He said that insurance can become a respectable venture if ethics are employed by the companies in an acceptable manner.

Ethics awareness programmes should be a continuous process across the whole insurance industry, he stressed.

For the good of the society, we should embrace a value system comprising honesty and respect for other person which must be the qualifying parameters for any insurance professional.

“Without honesty, there is no chance of a successful business relationship; dishonesty is destructive for personal life and it is disastrous in business,” he said.

There is no law against rudeness but no one would you continue to do business with someone who is rude, he said adding that those who cheat their customers fail soon.

Moral perfection can only be achieved through personal accountability and discipline which seems to be unpleasant in the beginning but pay dividends in the end.

Mian Shahid said that we have to go a long way as far as fair treatment of competitors, full disclosure and faithful control over other people’s money is concerned.

A manager who lacks moral clarity should not expect it from subordinates; he can transform good assistants into mercenaries, he said.

Published in The Nation, Islamabad dated Oct. 17, 2011