08 July 2012

Jinnah's prediction of the collapse of Western banking in 1948

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, predicted the collapse of the Western banking system on 1 July 1948 in his speech on the occasion of the inauguration of the State Bank of Pakistan at Karachi:

"The economic system of the West has created almost insoluble problems for humanity and to many of us it appears that only a miracle can save it from disaster that is not facing the world. It has failed to do justice between man and man and to eradicate friction from the international field. On the contrary, it was largely responsible for the two world wars in the last half century. The Western world, in spite of its advantages, of mechanization and industrial efficiency is today in a worse mess than ever before in history. The adoption of Western economic theory and practice will not help us in achieving our goal of creating a happy and contended people. We must work our destiny in our own way and present to the world an economic system based on true Islamic concept of equality of manhood and social justice. We will thereby be fulfilling our mission as Muslims and giving to humanity the message of peace which alone can save it and secure the welfare, happiness and prosperity of mankind."
Source: http://www.sbp.org.pk/about/history/h_moments.htm

1 comment:

  1. I doubt SBP, who so proudly exhibits this excerpt as part of their history, practices anything differently from what a lot of the western financial institutions do. Many people would argue that the recent financial crisis was triggered when a lot of the banks started offering subprime mortgages to relatively poor people who usually, under the traditional risk management practices, would not have access to those loans. i am not quite sure if that can be qualified as trying to practice equality of manhood, but it was certainly a step in that direction which backfired.

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