No More Guilt Trips on Currency Notes in Pakistan

Deeda-i-Beena

ATP Editor’s Comment: It turns out that, in fact, the said line (husool-e-rizq-e-halal ibaadat hai) does still exist on the new note. Our thanks to the readers who were able to catch the oversight that we failed to. However, we have kept the post live partly because the discussion is itself interesting and partly because the issue of whether having such a line on the note makes any difference on people’s behavior on ‘rizq-e-halal’, is itself an interesting topic.

Original Post: For many years every banknote in Pakistan reminded its owners that to make an honest living was a form of piety in itself.

No one really paid heed. And those who did probably laughed it away as a joke. The State Bank of Pakistan has therefore decided to stop that nonsense once and for all. If you don’t believe what I am saying then believe your own eyes here:

The old currency notes at the back were all inscribed in Urdu:

husool-e-rizq-e-halal ibaadat hai
making an honest income is prayer

Here is the face and back images of the old currency note of Rupee 10 denomination, prominently displaying that powerful statement:

And abracadabra: That wording has vanished from the all of the new currency denominations issued in 2006 onwards.

Witness for yourself this image of the new currency notes of Rupee 10 denomination below. Same is true for all other denominations too.

This could not have been decided by some graphic designer. No could it be attributed to some artist playing a practical joke on the Government, the State Bank or the Nation itself. It must be a conscious decision.

Has the government accepted its defeat in fighting corruption and removed whatever little symbolic semblance of ‘conscience-pricking’ these words might have generated? The guilt-trip imbeded into this little statement on the banknotes never did really work. Now we can accept something less that “rizq-e-halal” without even that reminder of guilt!

“Zinda Baad Rishwat”

Reference: World Paper Money Image Gallery.
See ATP Post on Coins of Pakistan.