A PAKISTANI-CANADIAN academician, who returned to the city of her birth after two decades, praised, a tongue-in-cheek, of course, the “entrepreneurial skill” of the Lahoris, who could make a living out of virtually nothing. She bumped into a smart Lahori in a local bank, where she had gone to exchange American dollars with Pakistani rupees. When she refused to accept a stack of soiled hundred-rupee notes (she called these ‘bills’), she was offered assistance by a currency changer, who happened to be there in the bank premises. But when the stranger demanded a certain amount as premium for exchange in the dirty notes, the visitor was surprised and could not believe her ears. She wondered whether the business of exchanging old Pakistani currency with new was fair.

The yardsticks often used by foreign visitors to Pakistan to measure the state of its internal affairs, including its economy and the social responses of its people are, one, the flow of vehicular traffic on its highways and city arteries, and second, the condition of its currency notes that are in circulation.

There is hardly anything complimentary, which can be said about the movement of vehicular traffic on our national highways and city roads, where commission-motivated drivers continue to wreak havoc on the lives of the people, both on inter-city routes and within the municipal limits of large cities. As it is, vandalism on city roads in Pakistan seems to have crossed all limits.

For years, circulation of soiled currency notes has been a major irritant for a majority of the people as many shopkeepers and bank branches refuse to accept these as legal tender at first sight because of their extremely and worn out condition. Many citizens prefer to pay a premium on exchanging the mutilated currency notes with new, crisp ones, as they don’t like to contract an infectious or contagious disease by keeping soiled notes in their pockets or wallets.

In theory, worn out currency notes can be exchanged for the new ones at State Bank counters, but in practice, it is not an easy task. One has to spend a good number of hours to exchange dirty notes with better ones at the offices of the State Bank. People are made to believe that it is also the responsibility of commercial banks to change dirty currency notes with new ones but this is not being done. In fact, a large number of commercial banks in Lahore do not take the trouble of depositing soiled currency notes with the State Bank but prefer to circulate these among their clients. Officials at the State Bank counters in Lahore claim that new currency notes of varying denominations in large numbers are printed by the Security Printing Press and issued to the banks by the government on a regular basis. A citizen, they claim, is entitled to get worn-out notes exchanged for the new and crisp bills from the counters of commercial banks. But the situation on the ground belies this claim. Commercial banks either do not have enough supply of fresh currency notes, or simply refuse to change them for ugly notes because, in the words of a bank employee, “it creates an extra and thankless work for us”.

The impatience of the people, and the time it takes to get new currency notes are two major factors, which prompt citizens to keep soiled notes with them. They tend to use the services of scores of vendors hovering around the local branches of the State Bank in Lahore, Karachi and other big cities, for the purpose of exchanging worn out notes with new ones.

For some people in Lahore and other cities, these exchanges have become a source of income to procure large quantities of new currency notes from the SBP counters and “sell” them to people waiting outside. The new notes are used either for the purpose of shopping, or making garlands that are put around the necks of the returning Hajis, bridegrooms at marriage festivities, or chief guests at political or social functions. Of course, a vendor pays a little extra to the State Bank employees to get a bulk supply of new notes, and makes some profit on his investment when exchanging them with old one in possession of those waiting outside the SBP branches. While the vendors earn a little in the exchanges, the people save time in making a quick deal. In these transactions, the “babus” sitting behind SBP counters also make an extra buck.

Old, ungainly five and ten-rupee notes are deposited daily with State Bank branches, either by the collectors/vendors doing business with common citizens, or cashiers in commercial banks. They are put in the incinerator of the SBP offices in various cities of the country. Even lower value currency notes (of Rs 1 and Rs 2), which are being withdrawn by December 31, are currently being deposited with the banks. However, the supply of new currency notes of the denominations of Rs5 and Rs10, according to bank officials, is not keeping pace with the demand.

Currency notes get soiled mostly at the shops of milk sellers, and purveyors of vegetables, sweets and other eatables like dahi-bhalley, fruit juices and ice-creams. They also wear out when used by the commuters for paying their fares in minibuses and wagons. The conductors usually stuff them in their handbags in such a merciless manner that in the evening they are all crumpled up. Currency notes also quickly lose their shine because of the poor quality of paper used in their printing and due to unfavourable weather conditions. However, it is the duty of the government to maintain a workable balance between the supply and demand of paper currency.

The government would do well by supplying the State Bank with large quantities of currency notes on a regular basis so that the old and disfigured ones are replaced and phased out in a systematic manner and as a matter of routine.