Daily Times

KARACHI: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail said on Monday that an amnesty scheme would be announced this month allowing Pakistanis to declare their offshore assets.

Speaking at a two-day World Islamic Finance Forum (WIFE) 2018, that began in Karachi, Ismail said that government would ensure that the scheme is not misused.

The Forum has been organised by IBA Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (CIEF) with the theme ofExpanding the Footprint of Islamic Finance: Innovation, Fintech and Regulations. The keynote speakers include local and international academics and industry leaders.

Ismail assured stakeholders in the Islamic finance sector that he would soon create a post at Ministry of Finance that would exclusively deal with Islamic finance. “A meeting of Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations of Steering Committee for Promotion of Islamic Banking in Pakistan would be convened shorty,” he said, highlighting the performance of his government, Miftah Ismail said, “we are set to achieve a 6 percent GDP growth which will be the highest growth rate for in the last 10 years.” Pakistan has the potential to achieve eight to 10 percent growth rate, he noted.

He said that his government had removed all basic bottlenecks from the path of growth that included energy shortage, law and order and red tapism for the business and economy. He announced to reduce taxes in the upcoming budget.

He also announced to issue Sukkuks worth Rs100 billion before the end of PML-N government’s term.

Shariah Board of AAOIFI chairman Shaikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani also spoke on the occasion. “We made a humble beginning in Pakistan, but the point of satisfaction is that people of Pakistani origin are holding key positions in Islamic banking around the world, making contributions in developing regulatory frameworks and above all developing products that are meeting the emerging needs of trade and business.”, he observed.

Taqi Usmani urged the government to take concrete steps to get rid of riba from the economy in absolute terms. He called for immediate establishment of a section or division at Ministry of Finance to be headed by an Additional or Joint Secretary level official so that problem and issues of Islamic finance sector are addressed.

He said that Islamic financial institutions have excess liquidity and government should work on creating avenues for the deployment of these excess funds. He said that Implementation Committee at Ministry of Finance which is dormant must be activated for the goal of islamisation of the economy. Mufti Taqi Usmani advised the government to include a resolve in its election manifesto to eradicate the riba totally.

The Chief Guest of the conference , Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Chairman AAOIFI Board of Trustees, said, “It is heartening to note that Pakistan is striving hard to become another hub of Islamic finance. It has all the basic ingredients i.e. a population of 200 million predominantly Muslims, a robust banking and finance sector, vibrant agriculture, industrial and services sectors. The apex regulators State Bank of Pakistan Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan are playing proactive role. The progress made during more than one decade is encouraging and provide the faith that achieving the target will not be difficult.”

Irfan Siddiqui, the president of the Meezan Bank requested the federal government to set a target to acquire at least 25% of the local funding through Islamic Banking as Islamic financial institutions have excess liquidity and limited avenues for investment. “A dedicated desk should be established at MoF for Issuance of Sukuk headed by Additional Secretary for targeting a Sukuk issue of Rs. 500 billion in the next 6 months period.” Irfan Siddiqui said that “It is a matter of great pride that Meezan Bank, first full service Islamic commercial bank is playing a key role in the promotion of Islamic banking in Pakistan and our work has been acknowledged globally. I am confident that exchanging views at WIFE will enable Pakistan to play its due role.”

Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, the director of the IBA Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance, while welcoming the conference delegates, said that IBA CEIF has emerged as a regional platform for excellence in Islamic finance. He said that focus areas of IBA CEIF included development of Islamic finance professionals and new HR talent pool through industry linkages and International collaborations.

Dr. Ishrat Husain, Chairman, CEIF- IBA, Jameel Ahmad Deputy Governor SBP (Banking and FMRM), Shamsul Hasan Deputy Governor SBP (Islamic Banking, Development Finance and IT Cluster), Dr. Farrukh Iqbal, Dean and Director, IBA and Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Takaful Pakistan, Rizwan Hussain, MD Pak-Qatar Takaful, Said Gul were amongst the prominent speakers.

Published in Daily Times, March 20^th 2018.