PLS Bank Accounts in
Pakistan
Q450 :PLS Bank Accounts in Pakistan
A450 : I have not made any judgement on that [ the
banking ] system as such. I have answered readers' letters which spoke
about certain accounts and transactions. Let me say clearly that I do
not have sufficient information about the banking system in Pakistan to
make a judgment. What I know is that the government has declared that
it is bringing that system into line with Islamic teachings. How far
has it gone with its declared objective, I am not in a position to
judge. When a reader tells me that he has deposited some savings into a
profit and loss sharing account, I give him my opinion that it is
permissible to accept any returns on these deposits. What this means is
that we accept at face value what an institution like a bank in
Pakistan tells us. If that institution tells us that we will have a
share of profits and we will bear a share of any loss, then the
transaction is permissible. If, however, it transpires that the claims
of the bank or the financial institutions are merely made to attract
deposits, while the system itself remains the same as the Western type
of banking, then that claim should be rejected. Our attitude should be
based on two elements which we apply concurrently; trust and reasonable
inquiry. We accept on trust the statements by a bank but we should also
undertake a reasonable degree of inquiry to determine whether the
claims of the bank are correct or not. We do not reject such claims out
of hand, nor do we accept them blindly.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )