KARACHI: The existing global Islamic finance landscape is no longer restricted to Islamic countries as basic tenets of Islamic finance, such as ethics, morality and investment in real economy are appealing non-Muslims also, said Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, the acting governor of State Bank of Pakistan.

Speaking at the Third Islamic Finance Expo and Conference-2014 on Thursday, the SBP’s acting governor said Pakistan being among the pioneers of Islamic banking also witnessed growth of over 30pc annually over the last five years and its share in country’s banking system has risen to over 10pc with a network of more than 1300 branches in 87 districts across the country.

The future outlook of the industry is also highly positive with bright prospects of achieving a market share of 20pc by 2020, he said.The SBP recently issued a comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework that institutionalises Shariah compliance function in IBIs and explicitly defines Shariah-related roles and responsibilities of its all key components, including board of directors, the executive management and Shariah Boards, he said.

He said that the government was already supporting local youth for entrepreneurship and loaning to youngsters through Islamic banks would be considered seriously. —The Dawn