The banks are bound under the law not to take the currency notes inscribed with slogans or messages of political, religious or commercial nature. Such notes under the 1977 Ordinance promulgated by the then President, Fazal Elahi Chaudhry, cease to be a legal tender.
As per that ordinance, "a bank note of any denomination which bears written, stamped, embossed or inscribed upon it any words or visible representation intended to convey or capable of conveying a message of a political, religious or commercial character shall, on and from such day as the federal government may, by notification in the official gazette specify, cease to be legal tender; and the State Bank of Pakistan shall, as from the day so specified, not be under any obligation to receive, exchange or refund the value of any such note.
"Any person in possession of any bank note referred to in sub-section (1) may, before the day specified in the notification under that sub-section, tender for exchange such note at any office, branch or agency, if any, of the State Bank of Pakistan, and any such office, branch or agency shall exchange the note."
The SBP also issued directives to banks regarding inscribed notes after it received complaints that SBP, Banking Services Corporation has issued directives to commercial banks not to accept slightly mutilated/clearly payable defective currency notes and as such commercial banks are not receiving defective currency notes which is causing great difficulties to the public in day to day transactions. The regulator, in this connection, reiterated that it has issued no such instructions. All the commercial banks are, therefore, directed to invariably accept notes simply bearing a line drawn on any portion or figures written thereon or ink spot appearing on any portion thereof or a bit torn while removing staples from a packet.
The SBP further stated that only such bank/currency notes of any denomination which contain any inscription in any form, including slogans or messages of political religious or commercial nature have ceased to be Legal Tender effective from 2nd June, 1977 in pursuance of the Legal Tender (Inscribed Notes) Ordinance 1977 (XXII of 1977). "You are, therefore, advised to ensure that Defective Currency notes other than those which cease to be Legal Tender as referred to above must not be refused and the General Public should not be put to harassment." Meanwhile, Chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Tahirul Qadri has withdrawn his call through which he had asked people to write ''Go Nawaz Go'' on every single currency note.
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