ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi said on Thursday that eliminating interest-based system from Pakistan would help boost the country’s economy.
Ashrafi thanked the government, particularly Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, who is also the head of the ruling collation Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani for his unflinching efforts to get rid of the interest-based system from Pakistan’s financial institutions.
He said the withdrawal of the appeal of national and state banks against the Federal Shariat Court’s decision on Riba (interest) had infused a wave of happiness not only in the country but in the entire Islamic world, adding that this bold step had raised Pakistan’s prestige in the Muslim Ummah.
“It was a longstanding demand of the people to make our society free from this interest-based economic system,” he added.
Maulana Ashrafi said the interest-based system was in contradiction to Islam and its adoption was considered an open war with Allah Almighty and His last Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him.
On behalf of the religious scholars, he assured the government’s team to provide all-out support to transform the economic system in accordance with Islamic laws and divine commands.
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s visit
While commenting on the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman to Pakistan which is expected on November 21, he said the Saudi Leadership was not only a state guest but also a distinguished guest of the entire nation. “He must be given an overwhelming welcome on his arrival to Pakistan,” Ashrafi urged.
Ashrafi said Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and the Saudi Crown Prince met three times in the last couple of months in which the two leaders discussed a wide range of economic cooperation.
He informed that to highlight the importance of Pak-Saudi relations which were based on faith and belief, the Pakistan Ulema Council was organizing the fifth ‘International Conference on Message of Islam, Pak-Saudi and Islamic World Relations’ on November 16 in the federal capital in which renowned religious scholars and leaders of the Muslim Ummah would participate as keynote speakers.
Arshad Sharif a martyr of the entire nation
Ashrafi declared late journalist Arshad Sharif a martyr of the entire nation, adding that those behind Sharif’s murder should be brought to justice and the facts about the tragic incident should be disclosed to the nation.
He hinted that India and its intelligence agency’s influence were not hidden to anyone in Kenya. The enemy’s negative propaganda of creating anarchy and maligning the national security institutions was properly countered by the government as it has appealed to the Supreme Court to form a judicial commission on the matter.
He said nobody should be allowed to do politics on the blood of Arshad Sharif. “As per reports, Arshad Sharif’s murder was a part of a gigantic conspiracy and it should be thoroughly probed,” he added.
He said the sad incident of firing on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s convoy in Wazirabad was condemned by the government apparatus in its strongest terms but the way, the government, Pakistan Army, and national security institutions were being targeted, was not acceptable at all. Ashrafi said if someone had evidence, then they should present it before the apex court instead of fueling the anti-state agenda by maligning the national defense institutions.
He added that India had launched an aggressive defamation drive against the security institutions of Pakistan which was alarming for the religious and political leadership of the country.
