Elimination of 'Riba'.

There has been news lately, that the government has apparently had second thoughts and has withdrawn the petition filed in the Court challenging the verdict of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) against the prevalent practice of Riba (usury) being carried out by our financial institutions.

However, apart from the profuse 'lip service' meant to placate the general public sentiments, this move seems to stem from the knowledge that the said FSC has given an unrealistically long period of five years to implement this decision. Skepticism is felt on the sincerity of this move, based on the historical background since a similar verdict had been pronounced way back in the early nineties (in 1991 to be exact).

It is no surprise thus, that virtually all the financial institutions, as well as their regulators, have so far initiated no tangible steps to implement this landmark decision in letter and in spirit. Except for only one private commercial bank which had on its own started converting its existing Riba-based operations into a fully Shariah-compliant mode, even before the said FSC verdict, no other institution has made any move to proceed with such conversion as a matter of urgency.

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