NA body to form special panel for proposals on Riba-free economy

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance has decided to constitute a special committee for finalising recommendations for ensuring Riba-free economy in Pakistan.

The committee met under Chairmanship of Faizullah Kamoka here at the Parliament House on Friday and decided to constitute a committee with inclusion of renowned Islamic scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani for seeking his guidance on this important issue.

“This committee will finalise recommendations in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and State Bank of Pakistan,” Chairman of NA Panel Faizullah Kamoka from PTI said.

The committee members unanimously stated that interest-based banking and financial system was a direct fight with Almighty Allah and his Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH). The members argued that they could not wait for two years to gradually move towards Shariah compliant financial system as there was a need to abolish interest-based banking and financial systems in the country. Although, the NA Panel has constituted a special committee, but it is yet to see how it moves to implement the Shariah compliant system on immediate basis when the country’s reliance on domestic and foreign loans has been increasing to run its day to day affairs.

Additional secretary finance told the committee that Shariah compliant system for banking sector was in place and efforts were underway to promote it. So far, he said that Islamic banking system got 10 to 12 percent success on Shariah compliant products.

The committee also sought briefing from National Bank of Pakistan on filling of posts. The NBP president told the committee that the Bank’s chief auditor was removed on alleged fraud of millions of rupees while five executive vice presidents and two vice presidents were sacked because of inefficiency.

He said that the NBP attracted talented Pakistanis working in different international financial institutions as they introduced merit-based hiring policy and implemented it in true letter andspirit. He said that the NBP provided loans to 56,000 farmers of sugarcane.

One member of the NA panel Amjad Ali Khan inquired about the reasons for sacking five officials of the NBP. The bank president replied that he did not have whole details right now but all relevant details would be shared with the committee.

The PML-N MNA Ahsan Iqbal said that they did not want to defame the bank but information should be shared that how many jobs were provided by the NBP branches in USA? He alleged that the NBP president was facing charges of money laundering in Nigeria.

The NBP president replied that they hired people in USA in 2020 while in 2018-19 the bank’s board hired people. There were 22 employees hired at New York. He said he had lived one and half years in Nigeria where he had removed one employee and his wife was journalist who had written articles against him. He said he was cleared by Citibank and then the State Bank of Pakistan also cleared him.

Regarding his appointment as president into the NBP, he said that he was interviewed by Asad Umar and Dr Ishrat Hussain. He said that all jobs were provided on merit and all relevant records would be submitted before the NA committee.