The Government of Pakistan raised $425,000 (Rs118.05 billion) in its 32nd auction of Government of Pakistan Ijarah Sukuk (GIS), reflecting continued demand for Shariah-compliant sovereign instruments, according to data from the Pakistan Stock Exchange.

The auction drew total bids of $1.5 million (Rs445.49 billion), indicating strong participation from investors and liquidity within the Islamic banking sector.

Meezan Bank, acting as the lead joint financial adviser, supported the structuring and execution of the transaction.

The government accepted one-year sukuk at a rental rate of 11.49%, while five-year fixed-rate sukuk were priced at 11.75%.

The 10-year variable rental sukuk also attracted notable demand, suggesting increasing investor interest in floating-rate Shariah-compliant instruments.

The sukuk issuance comes as Pakistan advances efforts to transition towards an Islamic financial system following the 26th Constitutional Amendment, which mandates the elimination of interest-based financing.

In this context, sukuk instruments are expected to play a larger role in meeting the government’s financing needs while maintaining compliance with Shariah principles.

The response to the latest auction highlights investor appetite for sovereign Islamic securities as the country expands its Shariah-compliant financing framework.

Turkey’s Turkcell has secured a $1 billion Shariah-compliant syndicated Murabaha financing facility to support its 5G rollout and digital infrastructure investments, the company said.

The facility was initially launched at $500 million but was increased to $1 billion after attracting strong demand from international lenders, with subscriptions exceeding the original target by around 2.4 times.

The seven-year facility carries a profit rate of secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) plus 1.95%, with a total cost of SOFR plus 2.14% including fees, and includes a two-year grace period on principal repayments.

HSBC acted as the sole coordinator and bookrunner for the transaction. Mandated lead arrangers included Kuwait Finance House, BNP Paribas, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, Gulf Bank, ICBC and QNB.

Turkcell said the proceeds will be used to fund investments in 5G technology, connectivity infrastructure and digital services as Turkey prepares to launch 5G services.

Separately, Turkcell has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mavenir to introduce AI-enabled voice and messaging services on its network. The collaboration will use cloud-based infrastructure to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities into core telecom services.

Azerbaijan’s Turan Bank has signed a $15 million financing agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to expand funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

Under the five-year agreement, ICD will provide a line of finance aimed at improving access to capital for private sector businesses and supporting SME growth in Azerbaijan.

The agreement was signed by Khalid Khalafallah and Orkhan Garayev.

The financing is expected to support business activity across Azerbaijan, particularly in non-oil sectors, as the country seeks to diversify its economy and strengthen private sector participation.

Turan Bank said the facility aligns with its strategy to expand SME financing and promote the development of Islamic finance solutions within the local market.

For ICD, the agreement forms part of its broader mandate to support private sector development across member countries of the Islamic Development Bank Group, with a focus on SMEs as a driver of economic growth.

The latest deal marks the sixth financing collaboration between Turan Bank and ICD since 2008, reflecting an ongoing partnership between the two institutions.

Dubai’s main stock index fell to an 11-month low on Monday after an Iranian strike on Dubai airport deepened investor concerns about the escalating regional conflict, triggering broad selling across UAE markets.

The benchmark index of the Dubai Financial Market dropped 3.5% to 5,235 points, its lowest close since April 2025. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange also declined during trading before recovering some losses, ending the day down 0.2% after late buying activity.

The latest market decline follows the escalation of hostilities after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Since then, Dubai’s benchmark has fallen about 19.5%, while Abu Dhabi’s index has dropped around 9.5%.

Iran has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key route through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supply normally passes, and has carried out attacks on civilian and military targets in countries hosting US forces, including the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain.

The airport strike added to concerns that the conflict could disrupt travel, trade and economic activity in the UAE, prompting investors to reduce exposure to sectors tied to tourism, property and banking.

Selling pressure was strongest in real estate and financial stocks. According to sources, shares in Emaar Properties fell 4.9%, while Aldar Properties declined 3.5%. According to market calculations, the two developers have lost about $21 billion in combined market value this month as investors reassess demand for property in the region.

Banking stocks also weakened. Emirates NBD dropped 1.7%, Dubai Islamic Bank fell 3%, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank declined 4.9%. Other Gulf markets showed more moderate movements, with Saudi Arabia’s index on the Saudi Exchange rising 0.3% by mid-session trading.

Saudi Arabia may be less affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because the state oil company Saudi Aramco can export up to two-thirds of its crude through pipelines to the Red Sea.

In contrast, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain rely heavily on the waterway for oil exports. According to Goldman Sachs estimates, if the conflict continues at current levels until the end of April, oil output could decline 12% in Saudi Arabia and 16% in the UAE, while Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait could see production drop by more than 25%.

The weaker outlook has also weighed on other Gulf markets. Qatar’s stock index fell 1.2% to a nine-month low, while Kuwait’s market slipped 0.4%.

The rapid adoption of frontier technologies is often accompanied with regulatory complexities and ethical scrunity. As Muslim consumers become increasingly conscious of their investment options, companies are looking to lean into values-based alignments.

ZIGChain, a blockchain ecosystem that supports decentralized finance and real-world asset tokenization, recently received a Shariah nod from Amanie Advisors for its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, helping obviate a long-standing barrier to blockchain adoption. 

Blockchain staking is essentially the process of locking up cryptocurrencies to help secure a blockchain network in exchange for rewards, similar to earning interest in a savings account.

We speak with Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain, about what it is essentially means and how will the certification translate into meaningful adoption of the underlying technology. 

Talk us through the certification process of the proof-of-stake consensus protocol?
Gadit: Amanie [Advisors] approached this the same way they would assess a financial structure. They wanted to understand exactly how value is created, who is doing the work, what risks exist, and how rewards are calculated.

We shared the full mechanics of our validator system, including how validators are selected, what they must do to keep the network running, what happens if they fail, and how rewards change based on real performance. They also reviewed our governance and the rules that surround staking, because Shariah compliance is not just about the outcome; it is about the structure and the conduct.

The key part of the review was the nature of the rewards. They tested whether validator rewards are linked to genuine work and shared risk and the source of the return they are receiving.

Validators are providing a real service to the network, and returns are earned through that service, with risk and variability. That is why they were comfortable issuing the certification.

How will the certification encourage blockchain uptake across Islamic finance transactions?
Gadit: For a lot of Islamic institutions, the challenge has not been a lack of interest in blockchain. It has been commonly debated whether the yield mechanics behind staking are clearly Shariah-compliant. Without the clarity, compliance teams and Shariah boards tend to avoid it altogether, even if the underlying technology is useful.

This certification gives Shariah boards and compliance teams a concrete and definitive metric they can rely on. It confirms that validator rewards on ZIGChain are tied to real network work and shared risk, allowing for institutions to participate with definitive confidence and proper governance.

With this clarity, institutions can justify allocating stake, supporting validators, and building Shariah-aligned products on-chain, without trying to explain staking as a grey area. Over time, that opens the door to a wider set of Islamic finance use cases like tokenized sukuk, compliant yield structures, and regulated real-world asset issuance, built on infrastructure that has been reviewed at a protocol level.

How is proof-of-stake different to or better than proof-of-work?
Gadit: Proof of Work relies on energy-intensive mining where participants compete by burning computational power. That model is costly, inefficient, and increasingly difficult to justify at scale.

Proof-of-stake works differently. Validators are selected based on stake and performance, not brute force computing. They secure the network by validating transactions and maintaining consensus, and they are penalized if they act dishonestly or fail to perform.

From a practical perspective, Proof-of-stake is more energy-efficient, more scalable, and better suited for institutional participation. From a Shariah perspective, it also allows clearer alignment with principles around productive effort, accountability, and risk sharing when designed correctly.

Can you elaborate on ZIGChain’s mechanism operating under the Wakala bil Istithmar structure?
Gadit: Wakala bil Istithmar is an investment agency relationship. In plain terms, it means an owner of capital appoints an agent to deploy it in a productive activity, and the outcome depends on performance, it is not a promised return.

That maps well to how staking should work when designed properly. When someone stakes on ZIGChain, the stake supports validators who do the operational work that keeps the blockchain running.

Validators are not being paid because money was parked somewhere. They are being paid because they are validating blocks, processing transactions, keeping uptime, and following strict network rules.

The important Shariah point is how the return behaves. Rewards are variable. They depend on real network conditions and validator performance. There is also downside risk through penalties if a validator behaves improperly or fails to meet requirements. That combination of work, accountability, and risk is what makes the structure fit the Wakala bil Istithmar lens.

So the core idea is simple. The yield is tied to productive activity and shared outcomes, not a fixed entitlement for providing capital.

Iran has said that it will target American and Israeli economic centres and financial institutions in retaliation to an attack on an Iranian bank a day earlier. 

A spokesperson for Khatam-al-Anbiya military command headquarters, said that “the enemy left our hands open to target economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime in the region,” according to semi-official Tasnim News Agency. 

“The people of the region should not be within a one-kilometre radius of banks,” the spokesperson added. 

Bank Sepah, one of Iran's largest public lenders, came under attack when one of its Tehran-based branches was hit by a missile attack in the late hours of Wednesday night. 

Iran has also issued a list of major American tech giants with regional operations as ‘legitimate targets' for further attacks. 

The list includes offices and assets of tech colossi including those associated with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, IBM, Oracle and Palantir in Israel and around the region.

“With the expansion of the regional war into an infrastructure war, the scope of Iran’s legitimate targets gradually becomes broader,” the post read.

The Middle East has become a hotbed for global tech companies looking to build substantial local presence and ride the region's tech wave. Dubai has become an increasingly preferred destination for tech companies to advance the emirate's ambition of pushing deeper across diverse industries, including technology.

Microsoft operates a major office in Abu Dhabi while Dubai hosts regional headquarters for tech titans, including Meta and Google. 

American hyperscalers and tech giants including OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA have bet big on the GCC region, partaking in launching infrastructure and initiatives including Stargate, the next-gen AI infrastructure cluster within the 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI Campus, to serve companies operating within 2,000 miles of the UAE's border. 

However, the region’s digital infrastructure has been increasing susceptible to Iranian attacks in recent days. Three AWS data centres in the UAE and Bahrain sustained drone attacks last week, prompting digital banking and connectivity outages that lasted several days. 

The GCC data center market holds immense potential, looking to double from $3.48 billion in 2024 to $9.49 billion by 2030, fuelled by cloud computing, AI demand, and 2030 initiatives in Saudi Arabia and UAE.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has approved the country’s first independent Shariah screening mechanism for securities listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, allowing a private firm to conduct compliance assessments for investors and market participants.

The approval has been granted to Al-Hilal Shariah Advisors Pvt Limited, enabling the company to independently screen listed securities and publish Shariah-compliant lists based on its approved methodology.

According to SECP, the move introduces an alternative regulatory pathway under the Shariah Governance Regulations 2023. It is intended to broaden participation in Shariah-compliant investment services while encouraging competition in the Islamic capital markets segment.

Previously, Shariah compliance screening for listed companies was carried out by the Pakistan Stock Exchange in partnership with Meezan Bank Limited and Al Meezan Investments.

As of December 31, 2025, 308 out of 535 securities listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange are classified as Shariah-compliant, representing 63% of the market’s total capitalization. These companies account for Rs12,373 billion of the exchange’s total market value of Rs19,679 billion, according to SECP.

Under the new approval, Al-Hilal Shariah Advisors will apply a screening methodology based on the latest available financial information and predefined criteria to include or exclude securities from the Shariah-compliant list.

The regulator said the initiative could also support the development of new Islamic equity indices within Pakistan’s capital market. However, any such index will require coordination with the Pakistan Stock Exchange before it can be launched.

SECP added that Shariah-compliant securities lists will now be updated and published quarterly, replacing the previous six-month screening cycle used for compliance reviews.