What Happened: The State Bank of Pakistan announced the winners of its banknote design competition, with international designers set to finalize the new banknote series based on the winning and shortlisted designs.
What you need to know: The process for creating and issuing new banknotes of all denominations began in January 2024. In March, the SBP launched an art competition to gather innovative and thematic design ideas for the new currency notes.
What more: Dr. Shery Abidi, Haroon Khan, Syed Fawad Hussain, Memoona Afzal, Hadiya Hassan, and Noureen Aslam won the first prize. Mirza Sufiyan, Aynee Zahra, and Karim Muhammad received the second prize. The SBP had previously announced cash prizes of Rs1,000,000 for the first prize, Rs500,000 for the second, and Rs300,000 for the third.
Also: The shortlisted designs will be shared with international designers who will use them as inspiration while applying their own expertise to finalize the new banknote designs. The SBP emphasized that while the local designs will serve as a reference, international designers will have the freedom to use their creativity in the final designs.