October 16, 2003	Thursday	Sha'aban 19, 1424

QUETTA, Oct 15: The Governor, State Bank, Dr Ishrat Hussain has said that Pakistan’s economy was flourishing as a result of economic reforms introduced by the government and sacrifices rendered by the people of the country.

Speaking in Balochistan University here on Wednesday, he said that 9/11 played no role in boosting Pakistan’s economic conditions.

“September eleven incident has no role in restoring our economy. It was our people’s sacrifices and government’s efforts which pave the way for making Pakistan economically sound,” Dr. Ishrat Hussain said.

He said the whole nation faced very hard time after 9/11 as realities were changed after this incident. The present government took many important decisions and introduced reforms, which helped boost the economy.

The governor said that the foreign loans were reduced to $35 billion from $38 billion in last three years.

Dr Ishrat Hussain said that Islamic Banking has been launched in the country and three banks had already started Islamic banking while licence was issued to the Muslim Commercial Bank in this connection, which would soon open branches for interest-free banking throughout the country.

He said that recently 11000 candidates appeared in test and interview for 50 vacancies of SBP and only four candidates could select purely on merit.