Govt restores Saturday holiday in public sector to ‘save electricity’

Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: A federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved restoring Saturday as a public holiday in an effort to “save electricity”, while also considering early closure of markets to maximise the use of daylight.

Addressing a presser following the meeting, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that restoring Saturday as a holiday would have an annual impact of $386 million and a $77 billion impact on the import bill.

She that the power ministry had recommended changing Friday to a work-from-home day, adding that the prime minister had created a committee to gauge the efficiency of this measure and inform the cabinet about it in its next meeting.

The meeting further contemplated the early closure of markets to maximise the use of daylight.

The information minister added that Premier Shehbaz would hold a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) with traders and the business community to take them into confidence before making a decision regarding the closure of markets.

She also said that the prime minister had approved a 40% reduction in the fuel quota for all government employees, including cabinet members.

Marriyum also said that the cabinet had been advised to reduce the quota by 33% for government employees only. However, the cabinet and premier decided to reduce it by 40%.

“If people are being asked to make sacrifices and go through hardships then so should the cabinet. The change has started from within the cabinet to reduce burden on the public,” she said.

Reducing power outages

Furthermore, the cabinet meeting would ratify the decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee on June 3, and a plan for load shedding would be presented by the Power Division.

The information minister added that the cabinet meeting was briefed on ways to reduce load shedding and better the energy situation. It was also informed that the supply chain was facing shortages because fuel deals had not been made by the previous government.

The minister claimed that the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was unable to implement the projects which were started during the PML-N’s previous regime.