Earning money legitimately is quite difficult in Pakistan. No doubt there is immense blessing in money earned halal way. Unfortunately in our country there is hardly any blessing left in time and money as almost every public and private institution practices corruption and the financial institutions are offering large interest rates that are is called riba (sood).
In Islamic Republic of Pakistan some major laws don’t comply with Islamic Shariah. Bank Interest rates in the West and most Non-Muslim countries are way below the interest rate that is being offered by Banks in Pakistan. In lay man terms the profit interest rates offered by Pakistani Banks are between 4-10% ( depending on duration of deposit ) as compared to western and developed countries where it is somewhere between 1-2%.
I am a moderate Muslim and for many readers I might sound like an extremist but our religion teach us complete way of living from birth till death and it has strictly denounced earning through bank interests and earning money from lending money. A Conventional bank’s 80% earnings are from loans and banks earn huge amount of money from these loans which are a huge burden on individuals, corporations and organizations. At time of giving loan they state an interest rate which sounds lesser but if we calculate the annual realistic interest rate, it comes out to be around 25% which is horrid.
Islamic banking is somewhat safer way of earning money but the problem remains, they state term ‘interest’ as ‘profit earned’ from trading as they state their profit before a deal has been matured and the buyer owns any particular product. Secondly Islamic banks don’t lend liquid cash to any individual or institution.
This could be a setback for State Bank of Pakistan but conventional banking should be discouraged to avoid riba and the Almighty’s curse, plus the employee culture within retail banking sector has worsened in last decade as it’s all about bringing money and who ever brings most money to the bank becomes the Branch Manager, leading to more promotions and I being an ex banker know that the liquor and feminism mode of obliging the big fish is in full swing that’s the reason I quit banking.
I request the Supreme Court and the Government to look into this proposal. We as a Muslim country should discourage conventional banking and allow Islamic banking to flourish and practice at reasonable profits earned through trading only and not profit earned through loans.
FAROOQ AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore