'Islamic banking achieved remarkable progress'

AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Islamic Economics conducted a two-day specialised workshop on Islamic Investment and Sukuk (Islamic Bond) in Lahore. The workshop was concluded by Dr Shahid A Zia, Head of Training, Lahore Stock Exchange, in which he said that in recent years Islamic banking has achieved remarkable progress.
He was of the view that stock exchanges should be viewed as a place of investment instead of trading. The purpose of this workshop that commenced on January 22, was to promote Islamic investment and Sukuk and it was inaugurated by Imtiaz Anjum Chaudhry, Member Finance Wapda, who is also the CEO of Wapda first Sukuk Company Ltd.
There were many research oriented technical papers that were presented by prominent bankers and finance experts. Mujeeb Baig, Head of Products Development and Research of First Dawood Islamic Bank, Hammad Rasool, Director of Wapda First Sukuk Company Ltd, Abdul Wadood Khan, scholar on Islamic economics, Sohail Yaqoob, Head of Marketing of AlMeezan Investment Limited, Dr Muhammad Qaseem, Shariah Adviser to Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited, Tanwir Haral, Regional Manager of Arif Habib Investment and Zubair Mughal, Director of AlHuda.
The workshop was attended by the representations of Dubai Islamic Bank, AlBaraka Islamic Bank, Meezan Bank, Trust Security, Arif Habib Investment, Lahore Stock Exchange, AlMeezan Investment, Haleeb Foods, Wapda, SSGCL, Auto Soft, Prime Commercial Bank Ltd, SKB Group, First Dawood Islamic Bank and other prominent Financial organisations.
About the workshop, Zubair Mughal said that it is a research-based workshop to promote and accelerate Islamic investment. He further said that in the international market a number of Sukuks have been issued by prominent group and governments to meet their financing need, such as BMA Bahrain, Emaar Properties, Aldar-UAE, Amlaak, etc. "There was a huge potential in Pakistan in both private and public sectors," he added.