The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released an explanation on Wednesday following the internet uproar over half-printed banknotes that erupted yesterday, stating that the potential of such flaws continues due to large-scale printing and fabrication of currency notes.
On Tuesday, a video of half-printed banknotes went viral on social media, causing indignation among Pakistanis. In the video, a man claiming to be the bank manager of the National Bank of Pakistan’s (NBP) Model Colony branch in Karachi displays two fresh Rs1000 banknotes with blank backs.
“I am not sure how many bundles have already been shipped. “These were returned by a customer, which is how we learned about them,” he explained.
He then presented another bundle, explaining that the same was true for the notes in that stack, and that each bundle had two such half-printed notes.
In its initial response, the central bank indicated that an investigation had been initiated. Later, it released a clarification, stating: “The Pakistan Security Printing Corporation has a strong procedure for isolating misprinted banknotes. However, the risk of such errors persists in large manufacture [of currency notes].”
Despite thorough quality checks, the SBP stated that a few misprinted notes may still reach the public.
“There were merely 10 such misprinted currency notes among the cash bundles dispatched to the NBP branch,” it claimed, adding that the mentioned amount of half-printed banknotes in relation to the total number of notes printed and dispatched to the masses was “very little”.
