Rs500 Notes: LHC wants reasons for new design

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the federal government and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to explain to the court by November 2 why it had decided to remove the old Rs500 currency notes from circulation. The court was hearing a petition challenging the cancellation of the currency notes. The petitioner’s counsel argued on Thursday that the state was only allowed to issue newly-designed currency notes in certain circumstances. The judge recalled that new currency notes had to be issued after the Fall of Dhakka. Shahanshah Shamil Paracha filed the petition through his counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique, submitting that many people had been unable to get their old Rs500 currency notes replaced with new ones by the October 1 deadline. He said it was the state’s duty to send its representatives to people’s doorsteps to help them but it had not done so. He asked the court to order the State Bank to extend the deadline. The petitioner asked the court to declare the notification, circular and any subordinate legislation cancelling the old currency note design to be violations of the fundamental rights of citizens and of the State Bank of Pakistan Act of 1956.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2011.