1950s Pakistani Rs100 banknote returns home from Bangladesh after decades

A worn Pakistani Rs100 banknote from the 1950s has returned to Pakistan from Bangladesh, resurfacing in Islamabad in what has become a quiet symbol of shared history between the two countries, Arab News reports.

The faded but intact note was handed over during a brief exchange at the Pakistan Tennis Federation headquarters in Islamabad last week, where former Pakistan Davis Cup captain and writer Muhammad Ali Akbar met Bangladeshi citizen Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury, who had travelled from Bangladesh with his daughter for an International Tennis Federation juniors' tournament.

Akbar said the encounter began casually while he was watching a junior tennis match, before taking an unexpected turn when Noor, upon learning Akbar had visited Bangladesh, showed him the old banknote and later gave it to him.

"When I told him I had been to Bangladesh, he showed me this note," Akbar recalled his conversation with Noor.

"I thought that's cute," Akbar said of the banknote Noor gave him.

The note, printed in English, Urdu and Bangla, dates back to a period when present-day Bangladesh and Pakistan were part of one country.

Issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on 24 December 1957, it bears a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and reflects the geography of former East and West Pakistan.

Noor said he had brought the note from Dhaka as a family heirloom.

He added that his mother and her younger sister visited Murree and Islamabad in the 1960s as Girl Guides, and his mother later passed the note on to his daughter.

His daughter, Yeanna, who is participating in the ITF juniors' tournament in Islamabad for players aged 13 to 18, said her grandmother gave her the banknote before she left Dhaka and told her to bring it to Pakistan.

Noor said the note carries significance for both Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, pointing to the presence of both Urdu and Bangla on the currency.

Akbar said the banknote may no longer hold monetary value but still carries meaning.

Noor said he decided to travel to Pakistan after direct flights between the two countries resumed in January this year following a 14-year suspension. The flights had been suspended in 2012 by the then Sheikh Hasina administration on security grounds.

"Bangladesh and Pakistan had no direct flights," the 47-year-old Noor said. "Direct flights have just started from Dhaka to Karachi, so we decided to come here."

He said the restoration of direct flights from Dhaka to Karachi made the visit possible.

Akbar said such artefacts help preserve memory and offer perspective on the future, adding that small gestures can grow into something larger over time.

Noor's daughter, Yeanna, who is visiting Pakistan for the first time, said she found the country welcoming and its people kind.