KARACHI: A wonderous night connecting leaders of Islamic finance was hosted at the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Development (ICCD) in Clifton, Karachi by Al-Baraka Forum. From government regulators to private sector to banking to judiciary – all came together to discuss the promotion of Islamic finance in Pakistan and the Islamic world.
Mr. Syed Muaz Shah, the moderator opened the gathering with a quote from the late Shiekh Saleh Kamel that “Islamic economics offers solutions for world problems” in that spirit he invited the Secretary General of Al-Baraka Forum and the ICCD, H.E. Shiekh Yousef Khalawi to open the august gathering. Shiekh Yousef focused on the realization that the Islamic world has the largest population, with the largest land mass and the largest resources and yet it is behind. One of the reasons for this is why in finance the Muslim world has not embraced Islamic banking and financial solutions and hardly any major country aside from Saudi Arabia has more than 50% Islamic banking. This needs to change and he invited leading Pakistani sectors to come together to attract Islamic investments from the Gulf and beyond if they can create the environment and that is what Al-Baraka Forum plans to do yearly in Pakistan with this event.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah spoke at length about the importance of Islamic principles to bring at home the message to the people of Pakistan. He spoke at length about climate finance and how Islamic financial solutions must embody that spirit of mercy and compassion, one he found most moving and different from a secular approach. He spoke about the importance of dispute resolution in arbitration and mediation to also promote foreign investment. He bluntly said “do not come to court” but try to use alternative dispute resolution first and courts only a last resort for interpretational matters at the end.
Mr. Akif Saeed of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP) said that it is important for stakeholders to come together to create the proper frameworks and though expressed doubt and challenges in conversion entirely within 3 years into an Islamic financial model, he definitely said it will be must more than 50%. He mentioned how the SECP hosted the Islamic Capital Markets conference earlier in December last month and how SECP is working with AAOIFI and other globe standards to bring about a positive environment for Islamic economy.
The last speaker, Mr. Yousuf Hussain, CEO of Faysal Bank spoke at length about the challenges of conversion and spoke passionately how 6500 employees believed in this change and embraced it and with that 1.5 million customers converted to Islamic banking accounts without any disruption. He encouraged other banks to join the call and agreed more experts in Islamic finance are needed to support these changes but it is possible if you have the will and the belief.
Mr. Shah ended with the note quoting the late Shiekh Kamel had once said “Islamic economy will benefit for the benefit of all humans – not only Muslims” and that this message was beyond just the Muslim world and encouraged the guests to connect and build bridges as that was the theme of the event to unify forces to promote Islamic finance. He went on to invite all guests to Al-Baraka Forum Conference on Sukuk happening tomorrow on January 28th, 2025 at the Marriott Hotel in Karachi at 9:00AM.
