KARACHI- The State Bank of Pakistan notified on Saturday the detailed instructions and guidelines regarding the issuance and other operational details of GoP Ijara sukuk. It is important to note here that Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Shamshad Akhtar had already said that in order to support the efforts to diversify the borrowings mix, the Government and the State Bank are working to launch the first Government of Pakistan Ijara Sukuk in the first week of the holy month of Ramazan amid liquidity management and help the Government to diversify its debt-financing instruments. According to the details, all commercial banks including Islamic Banks (and Non-banks subjected to SLR and entitled to open current account with SBP) will be eligible to open Subsidiary General Ledger Accounts (SGLA) with State Bank of Pakistan for the Ijara Sukuk. Commercial Banks having Islamic branches will have to maintain separate SGLA's to clearly distinguish between the holdings of the Islamic branch and its conventional counterpart. All Islamic banks and commercial banks with Islamic branches will be designated as primary dealers for the purpose of participating in the auction of GOP Ijara Sukuk to be announced by the State Bank of Pakistan. Islamic branches will not be allowed to separately place bids in the auction. The Sukuk will be issued at face value and the Ijara Sukuk will be sold via competitive auctions held by State Bank of Pakistan in which participation will be restricted to the above-mentioned primary dealers. State Bank of Pakistan will have the sole discretion to accept/reject any bid without assigning any reason thereof. The highest margin over the six-month Treasury Bill weighted average yield (at and below which SBP decides to accept all bids) will apply uniformly to all accepted bids. In order to ensure that there is no over concentration, holding of any commercial bank including Islamic banks cannot exceed 25% of the issue amount as of close of any business day. In case of commercial banks with Islamic branches this holding restriction will be applied on a combined/amalgamated basis. The settlement date will be the date of issue of the Sukuk. As per the rules, the maturity period of the first Sukuk issue will be for three years from the date of issue. The profit on the Sukuk shall be paid semi-annually on the basis of rental rate announced by the State Bank of Pakistan prior to start of each half year. The semi-annual profit will be benchmarked against the latest weighted average yield of the 6-month Market Treasury Bills determined one day prior to the start of each 6 month Rental Period (commencing from the issue date of Sukuk) and determined in the same manner at the start of each half year. In case the last held Market Treasury Bill auction the 6-month tenor is either rejected by the State Bank of Pakistan or there is no participation from the market, State Bank of Pakistan will use the 6 month tenor as given on the Reuters PKRV page (121-180 days) as the above benchmark determined one day prior to the start of each 6 month rental period. Primary dealers will be required to place bids as margin over/under the benchmark 6-month Treasury Bill weighted average yield. Minimum bid size will be PKR 100,000 and in multiples thereof. Primary dealers will be free to place multiple bids. Margin has to be specified in terms of bps over/under the benchmark rate up to a maximum of two decimals points.