Steps for Islamic banking demanded

LAHORE: Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) on Friday urged the government to take measures to promote Islamic financial system saying it had potential to provide better banking and financial services.

According to the global Islamic finance report, Pakistan ranks at seven in the world in terms of development of Islamic financial services industry, said Ehsan Choudhry, senior vice president at PCJCCI.

Presiding over a think tank meeting of PCJCCI at its premises, he said the business and commercial activities in the country should be coherent with the Shariah corridor and Islamic financial laws.

He said that growth of Islamic banking in the country had been over 30 percent in last few years, which was above the average global growth rate of Islamic banking and finance. If the trend continues, one should expect that in next three years, Islamic banking assets would at least double from its current size of Rs926 billion, he added.