The other day a letter appeared from a Pakistani Muhammad Saeed from Australia entitled ‘Robbery in the name of riba-free investment’ . He invested Rs. 4 lac in company named Kisan Supplies Services (KSS) in 1996. He says this company is directly managed by Jamaat-e-Islami Blaming Jamat has become a fashion I feel. He says profits declined gradually which in his view is engineered. He says company assets and investment has increased several folds whereas profit distributed during the last 3 years has come to 5% form 12%. He wants refund but company in 9 months have not given a single reply. My feeling is this word “Islamic investment” is just a stooge to allure and fool the people and a technique to use the religious feelings otherwise these so called Islamic Banks in fact are using the same methods of business as the interest-based. A fortnight back a news item appeared that banks in our country have earned so much billions profit in the first half of the year. We keep periodically reading such news items which in reality are “press releases” showing booming efficiency and profits of the banks, PIA, steel mills, this and that but when it comes to passing on the benefit of this to common man eg sharing the huge profits earned it comes to 1% or 2% of the profit or in annual meetings such organizations eg PIA beg for more financial aid to keep itself alive. The other day surfing the net first time I came across a web site http://albaaka.com.pk which is a site of such a so called Sharia based banking. The rates of return on deposits were very interesting. For example Jan-June 2002 rate was 6.50% which came to 2.75% in Jan-June 2003 and 1.25% in Jan-June 2004. The same is the decline in all other types of deposits. A thorough reading would show all types of rates of return on deposits of this Islamic Bank are under a gradual decline same as is in interest based banking. I am an ordinary Msulim. According to my knowledge Islamic investment is based on principle of equal sharing of profit/earning between the partners in proportion to their investments. The partners in deposits are bank and depositors. So the point is how it is Banks assets and liquidity is increasing, banks are progressing but its patners share of profit in these so called Islamic banking also is continuously decreasing and remains to match the level of rates of return offered by interest based banking. Rates of return on interest based banking deposits have been reduced lowest on dictation of IMF World Bank. If minutely seen same pattern is being worked on so called Sharia based Islamic banking which means these rates not arrived at under principles of Sharia but in fact under some outside pressure or is taken advantage of. Why this fooling in the name of Islam.