Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Friday urged the Islamic banking institution to extend banking facilities to untapped 82 per cent population of the country. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Centre of Excellence in Islamic Finance (CEIF), set up at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), at its city campus, he said: "Strategic vision of Islamic financing should be cleared. The Islamic banking, at present, contributes only 12 per cent to our banking system and hence efforts should be made to achieve the target of 20pc in the next couple of years," he added.

He said that federal government has established a separate department at Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for regulating Islamic financing in the country.

"Businesses have started shifting from conventional mode of financing to Islamic mode," he said, adding that the government in a short span of eight months has opened three Islamic finance centres in different institutions of the country. These centres have been set up at LUMS, Peshawar University and the IBA. Recalling that over leveraging had led to the global financial crisis in the year 2007-2008, the minister opined that the Islamic financing would be the future asset.

Felicitating the IBA dean and director Dr Ishrat Hussain, governor State Bank of Pakistan, Ashraf Wathra said that the central bank has allowed setting up of three CEIF for producing trained human resources for Islamic financing in the country. Highlighting the aims and objectives of the CEIF, Dr Ishrat Hussain said that the centre would provide trained human resources to the industry to take it to next level of maturity.

He said that centre will carry out quality research and document case studies for enhancing and disseminating knowledge. "The centre would be a platform for debate, discussion and discourse on current issues and best practices around the globe," he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015