Cabinet gives nod to weekly off on Saturdays

The federal cabinet Tuesday decided to restore weekly offs on Saturdays in government offices.

The cabinet met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discussed how the government can deal with the energy crisis at hand due to which the public has had to suffer hours-long load-shedding.

The power division presented an energy conservation plan to tackle the shortage of electricity amid skyrocketing prices of oil and gas in the international market, according to an update given by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb during the cabinet meeting.

 Although the cabinet approved the resumption of Saturdays as a holiday, no decision could be made over closing markets by 7pm to save power.

A cabinet sub-committee will now deliberate over the early closure of markets and hold consultations with other stakeholders.

Apart from this, a 40% cut in the fuel quota of ministers and government employees was also reportedly approved.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had earlier suggested two holidays a week to overcome the energy crisis.

In a statement on Twitter, Khawaja Asif had said that in the current situation, there should be a holiday on Saturday and Sunday and a half day on Friday, i.e. a four-and-a-half-day work week.

 He proposed that office timings be increased by an hour on working days.

In a separate meeting last week, chaired by the premier, the federal minister gave a suggestion to change market timings.

Asif had strongly opposed the proposal to open markets from 1pm noon to 1am, emphasising to open markets only in the daytime to utilise sunlight properly.

He had said that if the markets would adjust their timings accordingly, we could save 3,500MW even without Karachi, adding that tough decisions have to be made.