The bank's board said it had approved plans for a Tier 1 sukuk issuance, subject to regulatory approval, which could be sold either as a public offering or private placement. It did not give a time frame for the sale or details of the structure.

Meezan had sold Tier 2 sukuk in 2016, raising 7 billion rupees through a 10-year private placement that used a contract known as mudaraba, a type of investment management partnership.

There are five full-fledged Islamic banks and 16 Islamic windows in Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim nation, which held 11.9 percent of the country's total banking assets as of September.