ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar on Sunday cautioned Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri against misleading the people by asking them to scribble on currency notes.

“Scribbling or writing on currency notes is illegal and would render them useless,” said the minister in a statement.

He said such notes would neither be acceptable as legal tender by the business community for trading of goods and commodities nor by the banks.

The minister urged the people not to pay any heed to such calls from those who he claimed had already inflicted incalculable loss to the national economy and were “now trying to rob the people of their hard earned money.”

Dr Qadri, earlier today, had launched a movement by writing “go Nawaz go” on currency notes and urged the masses to follow him.

– Photo courtesy: PTI UK Facebook page

“I ask 180 million people of Pakistan to launch this movement … write go Nawaz go on every currency note,” he said while addressing participants of his party’s ‘Inquilab sit-in’ in the federal capital.

Qadri, along with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, had been protesting in front of the parliament to force resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif over the Model Town incident and alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Several rounds of talks have failed to resolve now the month-long crisis as protesters want nothing less than Sharifs’ ouster and fresh polls.

‘Inscription, slogans will demonitise currency’

Meanwhile, a spokesman of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that the value of any currency note will cease upon any inscription or writing of a slogan on it and such a currency note will be wasted.

He further said that no bank will accept any currency note with a slogan inscribed on it and such a note will not be valid even for any transaction.

Traders reject call to inscribe slogans on currency notes

Karachi's business community has rejected the call by Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Tahir-ul-Qadri to inscribe slogans on currency notes.

Talking to the APP here on Sunday, Ateeq Mir, the chairman of the All-Karachi Tajir Itihad said that inciting people to inscribe political slogans on currency notes may hurt the economy.

Such an illegal practice will make notes useless, because such notes cannot be used in business dealings, he added.

While Pak Alliance Market Association Jama Cloth President Tanvir Bari said that the State Bank of Pakistan has warned that currency notes carrying any such inscription or slogan will not be accepted.

He lamented that the sit-ins in the federal capital have badly affected business activities in the country.

All Karachi Anjuman-e-Tajiran President Rafiq Jadoon said no one would pay heed to Qadri's call for writing slogans on notes.

Pervez asks Qadri to disfigure Canadian currency first

Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervez Rasheed on Sunday asked Dr Tahirul Qadri to first disfigure the Canadian currency notes by writing slogans and get them encashed.

The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief, he said, would not do so as he knew that the Canadian banks would not accept such notes.

The minister, in a statement, said writing anything on currency notes rendered them valueless as per law. Thus the scribbled currency notes, he added, were not legal tender and could not be deposited in banks for transactions.