LAHORE, Feb 1: State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Ishrat Husain has said that only Islamic economic system offers equality and independence in a society.

He was speaking at the launching of book Man and Money by Sheikh Mahmood Ahmad organized by the Quaid-i-Azam Library on Saturday. The book was published posthumously by the Oxford University Press.

Dr Ishrat said the capital economic system offered independence but not equality while the socialist economic system offered equality but not independence. Economists were grappling with the question to strike a balance in the economic system to get rid of inflation and poverty.

He said the author had said interest should be abolished and given an alternative economic system recommending use of time factor.

Dr Ishrat said the author had also argued for the financial autonomy of the central bank because he wanted to preserve its independence.

Punjab Assembly former speaker Haneef Ramay said the author had given an alternative system for usury and profit. Giving an example, he said, the author wanted that if a bank gave a loan of Rs100,000 to a customer for one year then it should be allowed to borrow Rs10,000 from its client for 10 years.

United Nations former adviser K. M. Azam said the profit was a genuine return and could not be tagged as interest.

LUMS assistant professor Dr Khalid Zaheer said the book mainly focussed on the interest system.

Punjab University former pro-VC Prof Dr Khwaja Amjad Saeed, Prof Ikramul Haq and author’s son Tahir Mahmood also spoke on the occasion.