ACCORDING to a recent State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) advertisement (p3; Dec 25), old notes of the denomination of Rs10, Rs50, Rs100 and Rs1, 000 are to be demonetised by Dec 31, and they should be exchanged “immediately” from “Banking Services Corporation” offices. Where are those offices?

Despite being an old Karachiite, I do not know where the offices of the ‘Banking Services Corporation’ in Karachi are. Suppose there are 10 such offices; will they able to handle Karachi’s 20 million people, and do the people know where those offices are?

Most astonishingly, the SBP has not bothered to use the electronic media.

Why cannot the banks all over the country do it? Does the SBP really expect those mysteriously named and secretly located ‘Banking Services Corporation’ offices to handle Pakistan’s 220 million people by Dec 31?

Those days are gone when people hardly kept more than 100 or 150 rupees at home. Now they keep in reserve thousands of rupees, though with little market value.

As a tax-payer and having the right to elect and be elected, I expect the SBP to respond.

A harassed citizen

Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022