A panel of leading Islamic finance experts gathered at the Hilton for a public seminar organised by the Pakistan Professionals Forum Qatar (PPFQ) and sponsored by Qatar International Islamic Bank.
Dr Tariqullah Khan, Professor of Islamic Finance at Hamad bin Khalifa University, explained that in Islam trade is a permissible profit-making activity while lending should be a not-for-profit activity. But consumers have expressed concerns about the higher costs and non-standardised nature of Islamic financial products currently available. Addressing these issues, Waheed Qaiser, lead founder of the first Islamic bank licensed in the UK, said that conventional banking products are based on riba (interest), which is prohibited in the strongest terms in the Quran. Pervaiz Ahmed, Head of Insurance Products at Qatar International Islamic Bank, pointed to Islamic insurance (takaful) as an Islamic finance product which is competitive, provides true risk sharing and has been successfully deployed on a large scale.
The panel fielding a lively Q&A session also featured Zahid Hussain Awan from QIIB, Ali Bin Mohamed from Hassad Foods, Nisar Ahmad Rana from QIB and Amjad Hussain of K&L Gates law firm, who also provided event support. Deputy Head of Mission Malik Farooq from the Pakistan Embassy in Doha was the event’s chief guest.
The Peninsula
