A deputy attorney general (DAG) told the Lahore High Court that the prime minister had extended the deadline for demonetisation of old Rs500 notes by another year.
“People can now exchange old Rs500 notes for new ones until September 30, 2012,” the government representative told Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore high Court. Justice Saeed was hearing a petition moved by Shahanshah Shamil Paracha, in the Lahore High Court, seeking nullification of the State Bank of Pakistan’s notification that had set September 30 as the deadline for the removal from circulation of the old Rs500 currency note.
The irked judge asked the deputy attorney general to present in court the notification cancelling the old Rs500 note. At this the DAG sought time to get a copy from the federal government. Justice Saeed expressed his anger and told him to furnish the notification by November 24.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed also remarked that it was as a result of the government’s failure in solving people’s problems that there was undue burden on the courts. “If they [the leaders] are not capable of running the affairs of government, they should quit”, he said.
Paracha in his petition, through his counsel, Muhammad Azhar Siddique, submitted that on October 1 he had gone to a bank to get old Rs500 notes exchanged but the bank refused to do so, saying that September 30 had been the last date of exchange.
He has requested the court to issue directions to the State Bank to extend the deadline for the removal from circulation of the old Rs500 currency note.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2011.
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