I DEAL in garments for men at the Madina City Mall near Zainab Market in Saddar, Karachi. A few days back a customer gave me a fake currency note worth Rs1,000 during rush hours. Broadly speaking, it looked like an original one, though on examination I found it to be a fake one. The same incident happened to my neighbour after a short time. In this case the note involved was worth Rs5,000.

The problem is that there is no big difference between a fake and an original note. A common man is always at risk of being cheated. When people get a fake currency note, they try to pass it on to others. Some of them are poor like vendors. For them a 1000-rupee note is like Rs10,000.

The State Bank of Pakistan should accept currency notes from the poor because they are not cheats. The relevant authorities should take action against all sorts of cheat who are making fake currency.

Adil Awan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2017