A conversation on riba
Thinking deeper about the system as a whole, if there is no inflation, the necessity for interest does not arise
The writer is a senior political economist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]
Last week, the Press Council of International Affairs (PCIA), a think platform convened by veteran journalist Asadullah Ghalib, organised a conversation in Lahore on riba. It was hosted by a realtor, Iftikhar Sindhu, who had challenged the “antis” in the first place in the WhatsApp substitute forced by the current pandemic. Farid Paracha, one of the petitioners at the Shariat Court for the implementation of the decades-old ruling to eliminate riba, traced the history of official intransigence. He quoted from the Quaid’s speech at the inauguration of the State Bank, the Objectives Resolution and Article 38F of the 1973 Constitution. Ather Waheed opined that the unimplemented judgments by the Shariat and Supreme Courts sorted out nearly all c