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.
I request the Supreme Court & 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, February 10.