According to the recent decision of the Imran Khan government, many important expressways and airports are to be mortgaged in the exercise of raising money through Islamic Sukuk Bond.
New Delhi: The health of the deteriorating Pakistani economy is getting worse and worse. Alam is that the government of Pakistan now has to mortgage its roads and airports as well. In this episode, the Imran government has decided to take loans in lieu of more than half a dozen public transport related properties.
According to reports published in Pakistani media quoting Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, funds will be raised through sukuk bonds that promote Islamic banking. In this episode, Islamabad Expressway Islamabad Peshawar Motorway and Islamabad Lahore and Multan airports will be mortgaged.
The sukuk bonds will be open to domestic and international investors. However, this is not the first time that money has been raised on debt through sukuk bonds in Pakistan. In November 2017, Pakistan raised $2.5 billion through bonds, of which $1 billion was deposited through sukuk bonds issued for a period of five years.
Also, it is believed that the Pakistan government is raising funds through bonds to bridge the budget deficit. Sukuk is actually a Sharia-compliant loan system in which the income from debt is considered halal, while the money raised through it is also used for halal purposes.
In Muslim-majority countries, sukuk bonds are becoming a means of easy credit. Recently, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco Oil Company has announced the issuance of dollar-denominated sukuk bonds.
