Re: Islamic banking deposits in Pakistan to reach Rs 780b by 2014
Most of the Islamic banking schemes draw approval from one or more major scholars.
In the London-based Saudi bank that my father used to work for, my understanding is that the scholars (from 4 countries) who certified the bank’s Islamic products as being Shariah compliant did not receive any money from the bank for their services, so you cannot argue scholars sell out to banks for cash.
I believe that if an Islamic scholar grants approval to a banking scheme, then he certainly thinks it’s halal.
Broadly speaking, Islamic banking in broken into 2 hubs. There’s a Bahrain-centred hub that follows fatwas by Arab-Pakistani scholars, and a Kuala Lumpar focused hub that follows Malaysian scholars who have different ideas of what is Shariah compliant.