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Grasp of Riba-freebanking needsdeeper study: IshratRECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The seminar on 'Riba-free banking and taxation' on Wednesday ended with the note of the State Bank governor that more in-depth work "is needed" to develop understanding of the issue of interest-free banking.

Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences, Department of Banking, Hamdard University, had arranged the seminar on 'Islamic Banking and Taxation'.

The seminar was addressed by a number of well-known banking scholars and some top bank executives. Most of the scholars supported the Supreme Court verdict abolishing the interest-based banking.

In their support, speakers frequently quoted Quran and Hadith. It was observed that their emphasis mostly remained around Quran and Hadith.

SBP Governor Dr. Ishrat Husain said that more in-depth working was needed to understand the decision of the Supreme Court.

"Commission has been formed, task forces in the ministries of law and finance have been established. Their recommendations for Riba-free economy will be studied, scrutinised and reviewed", said Dr Husain.

He expressed satisfaction that foreign obligations would not be affected with the decision, which the Supreme Court has protected.

He said that advantages and disadvantages of the new system should be studied deeply and efforts should be made to bridge the gap between the two systems.

He was of the view that some serious work was needed to be done this regard. He appreciated the work of Dar-ul-Uloom carried out by Dr Taqi Usmani and Maulana Shafi Usmani.

He expressed hope that seminars in future would bring some scholarly work on the issue of Riba-free system.

Earlier, speakers including Ahsanul Hasan Khan, Zaigham Mahmood Rizvi, Mahmood Mandviwala, Zafar Aziz Usmani, Ebrahim Sidat, Ahmed Shuja Kidwai and Pervez Saeed spoke on the issue of banking and were unanimous in support of interest-free banking.

They said enough potential available for the Islamisation of the economy. They said they did not find any major problem in adopting the Riba-free system.

The speakers stressed that this was not the job of only the government but banks themselves should evolve and design new products based on Sharia.

Later, the SBP governor distributed certificates among the participants of the seminar.