The only way out of economic crisis is “when one [pressure] group bears "an unequal share of burden of stabilisation”
KARACHI: Earlier this year, a two-day conference of the 3rd ‘World Islamic Economics and Finance Conference’ took place in Lahore. It was attended by economists from across Pakistan. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the conference was that the panelists thought that the Muslim countries could achieve an ideal state of Riyasat-e-Madina using western tools.
It is preposterous to merge the two contradicting ideas to deal with the current economic crisis. The state of Madinah that the government has been advertising will fervour cannot be created through exploitative tools invented by powerful nations; just like adding Islamic in front of Banking does not make it more or less Islamic. Islamic banking works on the same framework as any commercial bank. Interchanging the word ‘interest’ with ‘profit’ does not change the way a financial institution works.
Banks rely heavily on interest and no citizens today is debt free. In fact, the US ranks second on list of countries with the highest national debt amounting to $19 billion, according to the World Population Review. Social security provided in the US is also selective and only those tax payers who have more than 10 years of service qualify for it. But what of those underprivileged citizens who do not have opportunity to receive education or land a decent job? What of those citizens who have suffered psychological and physical stress because of hazardous jobs? The system fails to include them and they are conveniently shunned away from society.
The only way out of the economic crisis is “when one [pressure] group not only decides to allow but also bear an unequal share of burden of stabilisation”. The pressure groups in most countries include the capitalists who are not only tax averse but find ways to influence the government to make policies in their favour so their profits could further swell. The problem with such favours is that the government and some factions of economists wrongly believe that the capital accumulated by capitalists will trickle the money down. This does not happen.
Sassi Bhutto
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2020.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
