Semi-Structured Interviews

Lack of case law, case commentaries together with weak relevant knowledge base require another useful source material necessary to assess and inform reform proposals made in this thesis by giving a sense of multiple interpretations and, by reflecting the reactions of the interviewees. The qualitative empirical approach employed in this thesis consisted of eight semi-structured interviews188 from local corporate lawyers, academics and the senior SECP officials so as to look into how statutory derivative action system works effectively in the marketplace.

Six interviews were conducted through SKYPE. Whereas two interviews were conducted face-to-face in the UK when some domestic corporate lawyers from Pakistan visited UK to attend condolence seminar organised by the Law Society, UK for the suicidal attack on lawyers community in Quetta, Pakistan. The aim of such interviews was to provide an evaluation of reform proposals made in this thesis and to incorporate their insightful and illustrative suggestions that had helped in proposing a workable and meaningful derivative action framework in Pakistan.

The interviews included open-ended questions instead of closed ended questions where normally questions are sought to be answered with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ responses.189

The open-ended questions format was chosen so as to allow the participants to develop their own view on a specific legal argument and provide their comments and opinions. The

188 _{Some set questions were divided in three categories, the purpose of the first of which was to identify}

the problems minorities face in practice, the second to reflect the current remedies available to minority shareholders and the third to gather any proposals from participants by eliciting their views on how statutory derivative action system would work better and to what extent. For explanation of in-depth interviews, see generally, Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for

Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences (2ND edn Teachers College Press 1998); Steinar Kvale, Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing (SAGE Publications, 1996).

189 _{Robin Legard, Jill Keegan and Kit Ward, ‘In Depth Interviews’ in Jan Ritchie and Jane Lewis, (eds)} Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers (SAGE

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advantage of semi-structured interviews was to understand in-depth of an individual’s perspective by giving a sense of multiple interpretations.

According to Kvale, the purpose of semi-structured interviews is to understand the qualitative descriptions of the phenomenon of interest.190This work helps to assess what problems minorities actually face in the enforcement of their rights in Pakistan, by reflecting the views of people who are involved in private litigations and policy making that helps in finding appropriate reform proposals. In order to undertake field work, the interview plan received formal ethics clearance from Research Graduate School, University of Bedfordshire, UK. (See Appendix 1 ethics form approval)

The SECP officials were identified through employee’s information available at the SECP website, in order to recruit suitable interviewees. Other interviewees i.e domestic corporate lawyers and academics were selected using the ‘snowball’ sampling technique.191 This meant I approached some of the interviewees using my own personal contacts and then extended the sample size following the suggestions made by initially approached interviewees.

In order to achieve the objectives of the research, I introduced interviewees to the research purposes, expected duration of interviews and the procedure employed for maintaining their confidentiality. I also made it clear to the participants that they might withdraw from participating at any stage of the interview process. Each participant was provided with the ‘Consent Form’ approved by Research Graduate School, UOB. All

190

See generally ,Steinar Kvale, An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing (London: Sage Publications 1996)

191

Snowballing sampling is an interview technique by which some of the interviewees introduce the researcher to, or suggest, another relevant person who also fits the interview selection criteria. See Jane Ritchie, Jane Lewis and Gillian Elam, ‘Designing and Selecting Samples’ in Jane Ritchie and Jane Lewis (eds), Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers (SAGE Publications, 2003) 77, 94.

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the participants were requested to read and sign the form before consenting to their participation.

As privacy and confidentiality is essential in all research,192 I assured all participants of keeping their identity confidential. Participants were selected from different backgrounds and experiences deliberately with the purpose to elicit their views on reform proposals. The interviews comprised of open-ended probing questions necessary to allow participants to respond in more depth on issues under exploration.193I recorded interviews in form of written notes and then shared those written notes with the interviewees so as to avoid any misunderstanding. After having got the agreement of the interviewees, I transcribed interviews into Microsoft Word.

The interview data was subject to thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke’s194 six phases’195

format for thematic analysis was adopted that assisted this study by providing a transparent data analysis to assess the reforms proposals, results and contribution of this thesis.

192

The confidentiality of the participants becomes more important in the context of Pakistan where public official are not allowed to comment on government’s policies according to Estacode Civil Establishment Code, Islamabad.; Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for

Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences (3rd edn Teachers' College Press 2006 )56.

193

Robin Legard, Jill Keegan and Kit Ward, in Depth Interviews’ in Jane Ritchie and Jane Lewis (eds)

Qualitative Research Practise ; A guide for Social Science Students and Researchers(SAGE Publications

Ltd 2003)141,153

194 _{Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’(2006)3 Qualitative} Research in Psychology 77-101, 86

195

This six phase format include , becoming familiar with data, generating initial codes, searching for Themes , Reviewing Themes, Defining and Naming Themes.

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