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1100-page judgement now being released

SC Shariat Bench has discussed 2 spheres of Riba

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: A former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, has said that the full judgement of the Shariat Appellate Bench was though a unanimous decision of the four sitting judges, it had two separate notes discussing the spheres of Riba-al-Quran and Ribah-al-Fazal.

Justice Ahmed said the main judgement was written by Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Khan and was concurred by all, but he and Justice Dr Taqi Usmani had dealt with various schools of thought which differentiated in the extent to which usury was prohibited.

Justice Wajih was discussing the importance of the judgement of the Shariat Bench of the Supreme Court of which he, besides Justice Munir A Sheikh and Justice Usmani, was a member and had heard the government appeal against the original decision of the Federal Shariat Court. The fifth member of the Bench, Justice Dr Mahmood A Ghazi, had sat with the bench until the end of the hearings but had later resigned to join the National Security Council and hence could not participate in the writing of the judgement.

The Bench now stands disbanded as two of its members, Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Khan, who presided over its sessions, and Justice Wajihuddin had opted to retire prematurely instead of taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order.

The judgement, inclusive of the two notes, is spread over 1,100 pages. A hundred-page long Court Order was announced by the Appellate Bench at Lahore in December last, but the complete judgement was not released by the Court Secretariat. It is now under the process of being published in law journals.

Justice Ahmed said that some schools of thought held that Riba-al-Quran was the Quranic injunctions that prohibited usury completely and did not differentiate in its practice by the Muslims, or the non-Muslims, but others thought that Riba-al-Fazal formed the interpretations on its application laid down by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) which tended to be somewhat liberal.

But to his mind, Justice Ahmed said, there was no difference between the two forms of usury and both were prohibited in Islam and could not be practised by any faith.

He said that he thought the revival of national economic did not depend on "small injection but on a major operation" and that could only be performed if the Supreme Court's judgement was implemented in full, and without delay.

He said that other countries had realised that the Muslim countries, sooner or later, will prohibit the interest-based system of banking and had, therefore, "opened Islam oriented windows" to retain the accounts of the Muslim nations but unfortunately there was a lobby in Pakistan that wanted to continue with the interest oriented banking operations.

He said people with this bent of mind were responsible for the flight of capital from the country, and quoted a UN official who had estimated that something life $90 billion of Pakistan's wealth was stashed abroad.

Justice Ahmed also advocated a crash programme to educate people on the Islamic economic system to alley their mis-givings and create confidence in the system laid down by the Supreme Court Bench.

Meanwhile, officials in the Ministry of Law and Justice said that the government has obtained the services of some known legal and financial consultants to summarise the recommendations of the judgement and also provide it with their analysis and method for its implementation. A couple of them have already submitted ad hoc reports which were being considered by Syed Sharifuddin Peerzada, Senior Adviser to the Chief Executive and Federal Law Minister Aziz A Munshi.