Afghans are stressing that no one should use the Pakistani currency and those using it should be punished. A number of people have reacted to a report in a Pakistani newspaper that said business deals in Afghanistan should be based on Pakistani rupees, India TV News reports citing Pajhwok News.
Daily Jang, a Pakistani newspaper in a report quoted the country's Finance Minister, Shawkat Tareen as saying that Afghanistan faced shortage of dollar reserves and that would be the reason Afghanistan would make transactions in Pakistani rupees.
The report said that Tareen made the statements after International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank suspended payments to Afghanistan.
Raha Press reported Pakistan's most "shocking" economy minister has told the Senate Economic Committee that since Afghanistan is running out of dollar liquidity these days, trade with Afghanistan may be in rupees (Pakistani rupees).
It should be noted that in the past, in many cities of the country that border Pakistan, the main trade exchanges were based on the Pakistani rupee, which was met with many reactions, the report said.
Shaukat said the situation in Afghanistan was being closely monitored and Pakistan would send a team to help revive the Afghan economy.
After these reports, Afghans launched a social media campaign titled 'Afghani is our national identity', Pajhwok News said.
Most of the social media activists shared slogans, such as: "We are residents of Afghanistan, Afghani is our national identity and using Afghan currency is our national responsibility".
