October 25, 2002	Friday	Sha’aban 18,1423

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LAHORE, Oct 24: The Federal Shariat Court had given a complete judgment in the Riba case, answering all the questions asked during its hearing, FSC Chief Justice Fida Mohammad Khan observed here on Thursday.

An FSC full bench took up advocate Ismail Qureshi’s application for fixing an early date for fresh hearing of the Riba case remanded by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Justice Dr Fida Mohammad Khan and Justice Sardar Mohammad Dogar are the other members of the full bench.

The court adjourned the hearing of the application sine die with a directive to the petitioner to study the remand order of the Supreme Court and submit a list of questions and issues which could possibly be considered during the fresh hearing of the remanded case.

Petitioner counsel Ismail Qureshi submitted that the Supreme Court had accepted the appeal against the FSC judgment and remanded the case to the FSC for fresh hearing.

Answering a question of the Chief Justice, Qureshi said although all the questions raised during the hearing of the case had been answered in the FSC judgment, the apex court wanted a comparison between the economic systems being practised in Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

The counsel submitted that Pakistan was still at the zero point in respect of enforcement of Islam despite promises made in this respect both in the 1956 and the 1973 constitutions. The FSC was established in 1980 but the hearing of the Riba case could not commence before 1990 despite having been filed soon after its establishment.

He further submitted that the Riba case was decided by the FSC in year 2000. The banks approached it through S.M. Zafar and were allowed a grace period of one year for implementing the judgment. The government again filed an appeal against the judgment through a bank and the apex court remanded the case to the FSC for fresh hearing.