KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 11): Port Dickson MP Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today placing Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) under the supervision of Bank Negara Malaysia is crucial to help the pilgrims fund board refocus on its original purpose.

Bernama quoted Anwar as saying that more needed to be done to supervise TH.  

“TH is an example of how damage has been inflicted and trust betrayed. It is not the fault of the institution, nor investors, but the management that misused power to rob the people, and action should be taken against them,” Anwar was quoted as saying here today at The World Bank, INCEIF and Islamic Research and Training Institute’s 4th Annual Symposium on Islamic Finance.

Meanwhile, theedgemarkets.com reported that Anwar had also questioned the Islamic finance industry for failing to present itself as a viable alternative during the 2008 global financial crisis. 

Today, Anwar said in his keynote address at the symposium that the Islamic finance industry lacked an intellectual cutting edge that presented a way forward based on distinctive and different principles. 

He said the Islamic finance industry did not have a pragmatic policy besides an overarching vision and institutional formation to lead the global economy out of its miseries.

"Why when the western economies were most definitely at breaking point, did no one – not even such an illustrious gathering as this – think Islamic economics and finance really was the alternative?” he questioned.