Also, a meeting of the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations of Steering Committee for Promotion of Islamic Banking in the country would be convened soon, Dr. Miftah said while speaking at a two-day "World Islamic Finance Forum (WIFE-2018)" at a local hotel.
The international forum has been organized by Institute of Business Administration's Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (CIEF) in collation with different key partners. The theme is "Expanding the Footprint of Islamic Finance: Innovation, Fintech and Regulations". The key note speakers are local and international academia and industry leaders.
The Finance Advisor to the Prime Minister said the government would soon launch Rupees one hundred million Sukuk for Islamic banking industry to strengthen its liquidity position in the pursuance of its mission of fast growth of Islamic financing in the country.
Highlighting the performance of PML-N government, Dr. Miftah said, "we are set to achieve 6 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth which is the highest growth rate in last one decade."
He hoped 6% GDP growth would create lot of job opportunities and said the country had the potential to achieve 8 percent to 10 percent growth rate. It had huge deposits of coal in Tharparker; the estimated market value is nine trillion rupees. There was big stock of copper in Balochistan and many other natural resources. But, he continued, the best utilization of these was needed.
He said that his Government had removed the basic bottlenecks in getting higher economic growth that included shortage of energy, law and order, and red tapism for the business and economy in general.
He underlined the need for further simplification of procedure of doing business and reducing the number of taxes. The country was going right forward to its targets. "I am trying to resolve the business community's problems," he reaffirmed.
He assured that next budget would be to maximize economic growth instead of maximizing revenue.
He also revealed that the government was going to announce the Amnesty Scheme before end of this month. However, he added, there would be certain checks to stop its misuse.
He also informed that in the coming budget, the rate of tax on individual income would be reduced to support the common man.
Globally acknowledged Shraiah scholar and Chairman, Shariah Board of AAOIFI, Shaikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani noted that the people of Pakistan origin were holding key positions in Islamic banking industry around the world-- making contribution in developing regulatory framework and above all developing products that were meeting the emerging needs of trade and industry.
Taqi Usmani urged the government to take concrete steps for making the economy riba free in absolute terms.
He pointed out that Islamic financial institutions had excess liquidity and the government should work on creating avenues for the investment of these excess funds.
"I would suggest, the ruling party to include its election manifesto that riba would be eradicated totally from economy at the earliest," he said. The chief gust of the conference Chairman AAOIFI Board of Trustees, Bahrain Shaikh Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, said "It is heartening to note that Pakistan is striving to become another hub of Islamic finance. It has all the basic ingredients -- a population of 200 million predominantly Muslims, a robust banking and finance sector, vibrant agriculture, industrial and services sectors."
The apex regulators State Bank of Pakistan Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan were playing proactive role. The progress made over last one decade was encouraging and guaranteed that achieving the target would not be difficult.
President, Meezan Bank, Irfan Siddiqui, requested the Federal Government to set a target to acquire at least 25 percent of the local funding through Islamic Banking as Islamic financial institutions had excess liquidity and limited avenues for investment.
State Bank of Pakistan's Deputy Governors, Jameel Ahmad and Shamsul Hasan spoke of the Central Bank's initiatives to promote Islamic banking in the country. Chairman, CEIF- IBA and former governor State Bank ,Dr. Ishrat Husain spoke on Islamic banking and its future potential.
Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Director IBA Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (CEIF) welcoming the conference delegates said that IBA CEIF had emerged as a regional platform for excellence in Islamic finance. He said that focus areas of IBA CEIF included development of Islamic finance professionals and new human resources talent pool through Industry linkages and International collaborations.
Panel discussions were also held ,which were participated by senior bankers.