The Banking System is the Looting Machine of the Capitalist Ruling Elites; only the Khilafah State’s Treasury can protect the Hard-Earned Deposits of the People
Press Release
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Banking System is the Looting Machine of the Capitalist Ruling Elites; only the Khilafah State’s Treasury can protect the Hard-Earned Deposits of the People
Janata Bank and Islami Bank’s new loan scams have come to light soon after the incidents of the looting of Taka 95 billion from three banks by opening fake address and paper companies were revealed. On December 18, the Daily Star newspaper published a report that in 2020, four big tycoons of the country took loans of Taka 21.64 billion from Janata Bank and Islami Bank with the knowledge of the Central Bank. (“Bangladesh Bank looked away as tycoons borrowed at will from 2 banks”, The Daily Star, 18 December, 2022). The 4 borrowers are: S Alam Group’s chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam and four members of his family, Exim Bank chairman Md Nazrul Islam Mazumder and his wife, IFIC Bank chairman Salman F Rahman and SBAC Bank chairman Abdul Kadir Molla. Amid the growing fear of unbridled bad loans and liquidity crunch in the banking sector, a series of loan scams by some tycoons has once again brought to the fore the horrors of wholesale and systematic looting of people’s hard-earned money. However, when the people started withdrawing their savings from the bank in fear of the increasing looting in the banking sector, Sheikh Hasina mocked and said, “Keeping money at home only gives opportunity to thieves. It is the wish of the owner whether to hand over the money to the thief or keep it in the bank”. But she does not consider these bank robbers as thieves and thus shamelessly remain indifferent to their crimes! Undoubtedly, these Capitalist elites who are borrowers of large sums are not only heavily government-backed but also part and parcel of this secular Capitalist ruling system who have been perpetrating the biggest bank scams one after another. Otherwise how S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam and his family members can take control of 7 banks and a financial institution? How did Salman F Rahman, one of the country’s biggest loan defaulters get elected a member of the parliament and also become Sheikh Hasina’s private sector industry and investment adviser and grab the post of cabinet minister without the government’s blessing? People like them who are very close to the government are taking ownership of banks and financial institutions and occupying top executive positions and are committing huge bank scams one after another. Turning a blind eye to these systematic robbery, this Capitalist government has instead sent 12 farmers of Pabna district to jail recently in a debt case of only Taka 25-30 thousands. Moreover, the government has increased the tenure of bank directors from 6 to 9 years, and also increased the number of directors from the same family allowed on the board of a bank from 2 to 4 to consolidate financial power in the hands of a few. At present, the banking sector of the country has been concentrated in the hands of 40-50 families. Thus the banking system under the prevailing Capitalist system is being used as a notorious looting machine to accumulate wealth in the hands of a few Capitalists through fraudulent practices of debt creation and plunder. In the banks the hard-earned money of the people are at high risk now due to this unprecedented state-sponsored looting by the tycoons.
O People! The present ruling system supported by corrupt Capitalists has repeatedly failed to protect your money and resources. Do not tolerate any longer a system that hands over your hard-earned money and wealth for the corrupt Capitalists to loot. This is the high time we realized that the only way to free ourselves from the clutch of such looting and other disastrous consequences is by reestablishing the Islamic ruling system i.e. the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate). The coming Khilafah State will by no means accept the banking system as an institutional mechanism for plunder and wealth accumulation. According to the Article 169 of the Draft Constitution of the Khilafah State produced by Hizb ut Tahrir based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah: “It is completely prohibited to open banks, and the only one permitted will be the State Bank, and there are no transactions upon interest. This will be dealt with by a particular department of the Bayt al-Mal. Financial loans will be undertaken in accordance with the rules of the Shari’ah and the financial and currency transactions will be facilitated.” It is therefore permissible for the Khilafah State to establish banks necessary for the State as a branch of the Baytul-Mal (Treasury Department) to accept deposits, provide loans and provide services such as money transfer and currency exchange as part of the supervision of public affairs. The State will strictly prohibit usury in such transactions only. Bait al-Mal of the Khilafah State has no restrictions on accepting deposits and lending following the principles of interest-free financial transactions. The Khilafah State will act as the responsible custodian of the people’s deposits and will always be accountable to the Khalifah (Caliph). Allah the Exalted, says,
*إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا الأَمَانَاتِ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَنْ تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُمْ بِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا*
“Indeed, Allah commands you to return trusts to their rightful owners; and when you judge between people, judge with fairness” [Surah An-Nisa: 58]. Moreover, business in the Khilafah state will not be controlled by any elite class. The Khilafah state may provide interest-free loans from Baitul Mal to the potential applicants willing to set up enterprises and industries that will generate employment and revenues. In addition, the Khilafah Sstate will provide grants and interest-free loans to the needy to run businesses and poor farmers for poverty alleviation from the revenue of Baitul Maal. And the disabled citizens like crippled or helpless will be brought under the state allowance (nafaka) system. Therefore, join the intellectual and political struggle to re-establish the promised Khilafah Rashidah under the leadership of Hizb ut Tahrir without delay to ensure financial security, welfare and economic prosperity.
Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir / Wilayah Bangladesh