Currency Bills

There was a news report that the State Bank will print no more five rupee notes being not viable.  Strange!  The type of paper and ink used in printing the current currency bills is of such a low quality that the printing of a note even for One Paisa should pose no problem to the State Bank. Every time I get some notes back from a gas station or even a bank they look so badly mauled up and faded in colour that I have to take extra care in sorting them out according to their denomination to put them in my wallet. The sparkle, the crispiness and the beautiful colours that were once the hallmark of the legal tenders are alas no more.  Is the age old practice of periodically withdrawing old ragtag monetary bills and destroying them by burning still in vogue by the State Bank of Pakistan?  No wonder no one accepts our currency abroad, the very looks of which proclaim its worthlessness.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)