Third World Islamic Economics & Finance Conference concludes

The third two-day World Islamic Economic and Finance Conference (WIEFC) concluded here on Sunday giving an Action Plan for the year and announcing the formation of a thinkers’ forum, to serve as a platform for suggesting solutions to the economic and financial issues being faced by the Muslim world.

The Lahore Declaration Action Plan 2020, presented by Deputy Chairman of Minhaj University’s Board of Governors, Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri, calls for developing innovative economic and financial solutions for uplifting and empowering the poor and unserved communities.

It urges all public and private sector institutions and organizations, including regulators and legislators, to collaborate for reducing poverty and sharing prosperity.

Islamic finance tools like Zakat, Waqf, and Takaful can contribute towards scaling up efforts in commercially non-viable but socially vital projects and programs to uplift the standard of living in diverse communities.

A uniform and obligatory universal wealth levy like Zakat and Takful-based cooperative system can help check wealth inequalities and mobilize funds for overcoming hunger and poverty.

The interest-based world economy continues to enslave poor nations causing brain drain from the poor to rich nations, the Action Plan read.

Muslim economists and platforms like WIEFC should suggest solutions to policy-influencing multilateral institutions like the World Bank, IMF, and the UN.

The Action Plan urges Muslim countries that while implementing, SDGs use Maqasid al-Sharia to define solutions in accordance with Islamic principles of justice and equitable distribution of wealth.

It calls for the digitization of the Islamic finance industry in view of the tech-savvy young consumers and highlights the need for internationally uniform Halal certification standards and curbing misuse of Halal Logo.

The Action Plan further underscores the need for tapping the blue economy for the Islamic finance industry and linking particularly its Sukuk product with this emerging type of economy.

Dr Qadri congratulated Minhaj University VC Dr Sajid Mahmood Shehzad and Pro-VC Dr Shahid Soroya for successfully organizing the international moot.

Among the research papers read during the conference, the one penned by Dr Mehboobul Hassan was declared as the best and the author was given a $1000 cash award. The State Bank’s paper was chosen as the second-best.

Those who attended the concluding session included Punjab Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Fazal Ahmed Khalid, known showbiz personality Usman Peerzada, Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust secretary Shahid Rasheed, Tehreek-i-Pakistan Workers’ Trust deputy secretary Chaudhry Usman, and Women Development chairman Tanzeela Imran.

Cambridge, US, DG Dr Kabeer Hassan, and Islamic Finance, England, DG Dr Humayon Dar presented their papers in the concluding session.

Earlier, former finance secretary Waqar Masood Khan, ex-federal finance minister Dr Hafeez Pasha, IBA, Karachi, Director Dr Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Federal Board of Investment Additional Secretary Saleem Ahmed Ranjha and Dr Rizwan Malik from Bahrain participated in the panel discussion.