Rally held against court decision on riba plea

Karachi
The Tanzeem-e-Islami Karachi staged a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday against the dismissal of a petition against riba or interest-based banking by the apex court on October 6.
Addressing the protesters, Tanzeem-e-Islami’s Shujauddin Sheikh said the petitioner, Hafiz Akif Saeed, had requested the court to enforce Article 38 (f) of the Constitution which stated that the state had to eliminate riba as early possible for the promotion of the social and economic well-being of the people.
Amir Khan, another leader of the organisation, said a judge while dismissing the case had remarked that people who wanted to refrain from investing in the interest-based banking could avoid it while others were answerable to Allah for their own actions.
This, Khan added, paved the way for holding any individual, whether it was a government officer or a general, answerable to the Almighty without refraining them from committing the act.
Engineer Noman Akhtar, also a Tanzeem-e-Islami leader, said the decision had washed away the 35-year-long efforts by the Pakistani people to eliminate riba from the country.
The speakers said the authorities must introduce a riba-free economic system.
A three-member bench of the apex court, dismissing the petition, had remarked that the Federal Shariat Court was already hearing the case of the omission of riba and it should be taken up there.
The Federal Shariat Court, in 1992, had declared riba an un-Islamic practice, but following the decision of the then government of Nawaz Sharif, an appeal was filed against the verdict before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court in 1999 had upheld the decision of the Federal Shariat Court. The apex court had given the then government two years to amend laws to end riba.
However, the Musharraf government had again taken up the matter with the post-2000 PCO Supreme Court, which, in 2002, had referred the case back to the Federal Shariat Court.