PESHAWAR, Dec 22: The ‘afghani’ plunged to new low in its exchange value against Pakistani rupee on Saturday.

The afghani began the day with Re1 to 286 afghani and underwent major slide by

the close of the operations at the Peshawar’s central currency dealing market - Chow Yadgar.

After undergoing trimming throughout the day on Saturday, afghani settled at Re1 to 400 afghani by the end of the day.

The vulnerable Afghan currency experienced major slide during the last three days after it recorded improvement in its exchange value against Pakistani rupee as high as Re1 to 200 afghani on Wednesday last.

The continuing descending trend in afghani’s parity with Pakistani rupee, especially on Saturday - the last working day as far as currency dealings go - has been attributed to heavy influx of Afghan currency bills that found their way in the Peshawar’s currency market on Saturday.

“A large number of Afghan currency bills, brought from Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, flooded the local currency market further destabilizing the Afghan currency reducing its exchange value against Pakistani rupee further,” said Fazal-e-Maula Sarafa, a local currency dealer.

Currency dealers told Dawn that Afghan currency bills flooded the Peshawar market on Saturday because the Northern Alliance, after taking over Kabul, printed the currency bills, of all denominations, in large number to earn profit keeping up with the increasing demand for afghani inside Afghanistan and the Pakistani currency markets following the collapse of the Taliban.

Consistent decline in afghani’s value against the Pakistani rupee belied the speculations and proved wrong all predictions that afghani would register tremendous growth once new Afghan government comes into power.