Analytical Study of Dual Banking and Earlier Efforts Towards Islamization of Bank of Khyber in the Light of Shariah

The proposal of interest-free banking is very old because Islam restricted the interest base transaction at very beginning after the revelation of prohibition of Interest, noble Quran called it as Riba. This prohibition is of sever nature relatively, Allah says; O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. The suggestion for the establishment of such financial institutions that run according to shariah has been put in queue for about centuries. To get rid from the dominancy of conventional banking system, forced the religious scholar to take initiative in this regard and started interest free banking. It was not easy to switch entirely from conventional banking system to Islamic one as for different technical issues, leads the existent banks to start dual banking system. Bank of Khyber is the first Bank of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa operating as dual banking, i.e. Conventional as well as Interest free banking. This study focuses on analysis of dual banking system of bank of KHYBER in order to know the extent of conformity with shariah standards along with highlighting the earlier efforts of it towards Islamization.  

Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Studies of Ferrocenyl Ureas & Thioureas

Series of ferrocene substituted organometallic thioureas and ureas of general formula [C 5 H 5 FeC 5 H 4 C 6 H 3 (R)NHC(X)NHR`] where, R = H, CH 3 , OCH 3 or Cl, R` = alkyl/aryl groups and X = O or S, have been synthesized and characterized by using elemental analysis, FT-IR, multinuclear ( 1 H and 13 C) NMR spectroscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Single crystal XRD was used for structural elucidation of some of the synthesized intermediate and end products. In all crystal structures free cyclopendienyl (Cp) ring found to be disordered over two sets of atoms. Based on the single crystal X-ray analysis most of the synthesized compounds were found to be stabilized by intermolecular as well as intramolecular hydrogen bonding and secondary non-covalent interactions. These intermolecular interactions permeate these molecules to form supera-molecular structures. The synthesized intermediates and the end products were studied for the interaction with modal bio-mimetic micelle membranes by probing with 1 H-NMR and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Membrane penetration studies have been carried out for some compounds with model lipid membrane interfaces prepared from SDS and TTAB surfactants using 1 H NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. Results show the presence of these molecules in the interfacial regions of the self assembled systems. These studies justify the lipophilic character of these compounds as their ability to penetrate into the modal membranes. Primarily these compounds were screened for their DNA binding behavior and antioxidant activity to evaluate their anti-cancer potency. Ferrocenyl ureas exhibited better anti-oxidant activity than the respective thioureas in general and compound B u 6 was found to be the most active with IC 50 = 11.94 ± 0.05 μM (IC 50 for standard thiourea is 30.53 ± 0.1 μM). DNA binding studies based on UV-Visible spectrophotometric titration shows the potential of these organometallic compounds as an anti-cancer agents. In ferrocenyl thioureas, the induction of nitro group found to increase the binding ability of these compounds with DNA in these titrations. And E t 6 was found to be the most interacting compound among the tested ones with binding constant of Kb = 10810 M -1 .