About three-quarters of Pakistanis like the idea of Islamic banking that follows the dictates of Shariah religious law, but over 80% of the country’s 190 million people, 97% of whom are Muslim, know little about how it works. A study by Pakistan’s central bank found that 74% of those polled said they would be willing to switch to Islamic banking, which bans interest payments and imposes other moral constraints, but only 23% said they were driven by religious belief. However, 69% said they don’t have any Islamic banks close by. The government wants to raise Islamic banking from 10% to 15% of total banking business.
