Energy conference: Government offices to work 5 days a week
The decision was taken during the National Energy Conference, headed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Speaking during a press briefing after the conference, Prime Minister Gilani put forward the decisions taken during the hours-long discussion between the stakeholders.
Apart from reducing the number of working days for government offices, the government has decided to implement a street-light conservation plan recommended by the Ministry of Water and Power.
Conference members have also decided to shut all commercial centres throughout the country at 8pm except for weekends. The decision will however be finalised after being approved by coalition parties.
Admitting the uselessness of the daylight saving program initiated earlier, the government has decided to have different office hours during winter and summer time, hoping to save more energy than was done during daylight saving program.
The government will also cut power supply to advertisement billboards and would replace all the regular bulbs with energy-savers.
To ensure the smooth supply of power, government will allocate additional gas to power companies.
Gilani revealed that the government will draft an act for the prevention of power thefts. “Cases related to power thefts will be registered and immediate action against the culprits will be taken,” he said.
To limit the use of energy by government offices, the conference members decided to install prepaid metres in all federal and provincial government buildings.
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By the way... Why don't Government keep off the whole week ! If keeping off days is the powerful solution for energy crises... So foolish idea.!
The same old story which has been continuing for the last 4 year. The government should focus on Generation of power rather than Conservation. Shutting shops and centres at 8 pm, illuminating half the street light, working 5 days a week are not permanent solution for resolving the energy crisis the government should come up with long term solutions i.e. generate electricity from sustainable/alternate energy . The Energy conference would have been successful if the focus had been on Generation of Electricity rather than Conservation.
PPP always worked for the betterment of the people and country. I could yet remember that when there was shortage of power, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed signed several agreements with foreign countries to cater the soaring demands of electricity. Several projects were launched during the regime of Mohtarma Shaheed, how unfortunately the succeeding governments of PML-N and then Musharraf did nothing for the energy deficit, even no single power plant was installed during Musharraf government. The same is the case with gas shortage. Pakistan is suffering from worst even energy crisis. The onslaught of Supreme Court on RPPS has further intensified the power outage problem. Such unrealistic moves make no sense when country is already facing a problem.
@DevilHunterX:
energy is my area of expertise and i know it all... the first aid through rental power plants have failed miserably... just by juggling the time to make people fool will not help this nation; when incompetent, criminal minded people lead a nation, that's what happens - crises everywhere!
@blithe: Am sure you are enjoying your free laptop. Please enlighten us how this term of PML-N and the 5 terms before it have been a blessing for the people of Punjab. The development in the province of Punjab rivals that of any first world country right? It is very easy to call somebody else a troll when you yourself are the one doing the trolling. Go back to sleep, son.
jeaaaay bhutto...plz vote for ppp in the next elections..hahahaha....
Is there anything in these suggestions that could not have been implemented four years ago?
the greatest power theft as well as well commercial thefts in the form of over charging customers occur in our bazars,markets and business centers. Also these are the places where we commonly see over-illumination and over air-conditioning. Separate billing rates should be chargedfrom these people while industrial rates should be subsidized to provide relief to collapsing industry. Working 5 days a week is not the solution of our problems,instead reversing clocks or compulsory opening offices and bazars early and then shutting down at an earlier time would prevent.t economic collapse. further the holiday of bazars should be on a different day then from offices so that working couples don't face any trouble. Shutting down bazars at 5pm will achieve maximum conservation, much more than that sarw ed from extra holiday in offices.
I agree with the closure of all commercial activities by 8pm during the week. This will not only save us energy but also promote social life. UK has similar policy where all commercial centers stop trading by 5.30pm during the week and it is considered illegal to serve customers after these timings.
Workers can have tea and read newspapers at home.... 2 days a week work is ok for me... our government will delay files for no reason as it is.... so they can work only 2 days a week and we can save money from the fans and lights that run in government offices and the sui gas that keeps making tea for the workers.
2-day work week needs to be implemented in the private sector as well. We need a work-life balance. Already we suck dry our workers, treat them as slaves, The industrialist can not function in this scenario (5 days) as their own machines, managers are inefficient. Then these industrialists are also part of the poltical system, so they can not implelent this. They are paying for these workers...so there is no political will to implement this in the private sector.
5 day. Working in government offices can help improve efficiency
With leaders like these, who needs enemies.
Successful Implementation of the recommendations will prove to be the key to success It's simply a matter of priorities. We wish the government good luck.
Five days a week is good idea but must be extended to all commercial and industrial sectors throughout Pakistan. Govt also to tell us what else they are doing on priority basis.Why not privatise solar energy with some incentive such duty waiver etc.
@Khan in Jeddah: Know anything about first aid? How do you treat an arm wound? What is step 1? Do you stop the bleeding before applying medicine or do you just amputate the arm?
Right now Government got to stop the bleeding of resources e.g. Fuel, Electricity, Water, Gas and Money.
They should allow and promote alternative energy like in other countries. e.g. They can give soft loans to the public to install solar panels / windmills and buy the excessive electricity.
pakistan has sufficient energy generation.no need to buy from india.the govt shouid reduce the ;aayashee; nd resolve circular debt.was it necessary to donote $10 lakh to mazar.kia zinda loogo k zarorat khatam ho gaie
@Blithe: Wonderful logic and very pertinent to the energy issue. No wonder PML-N is doing such a great job in Punjab. It truly is Heaven on Earth!
@Blithe: Even you know how ridiculous it sounds when somebody says "IK-Zardari Bhai Bhai". :P You also know its "Sharif-Zardari Bhai Bhai" and the last 4 years have stamped this reality. Whenever Zardari needed PML-N's support, he got it but whenever the masses needed PML-N to act as real opposition & take stand for them; PML-N started looking the other way. Be it the "Go Zardari Go" movement (5 months back) or the "En-masse Resignations from Assemblies" (3 months back) or the latest "Load-Shedding Long March" (turned out both SS and NS did a Fur-Long March to London)... PML-N's Noora-Kushti with PPP stands fully exposed (with obvious consensus on Baari-system off course). So my brother, give that "Free Laptop Blithe" to someone else. This nation cannot be fooled any more by stories about someone's PERSONAL LIFE. Pakistan has moved on and these Samjhota Express tricks by Mian Jee, Nisar Jee, Maulana Saheb, Wali Jee, Zardari Saheb & Gilani Sayeen won't affect the zealous youth of Pakistan anymore. With regards from Federally Administered Tribal Areas... :P
2.5 days holiday Friday half day, Sat/Sunday holiday.
All salaries of government servants including the Prime Minister of Pakistan are been paid by the tax payers of Pakistan.
Why only the government servants will work five days in a week and why not all the private sector offices and factories should also work five days in the week and shut down for complete two days viz. Saturdays and Sundays every week, which will also save more energy than anticipated 700 megawatts of energy, except hospitals, medical stores and offices that provide emergency services.
If all the commercial centers are open 9am sharp then it should close 5pm sharp in the evening so that according to the labour laws of the country, the workers should only work for 8 hours in a day and 40 hours in a week.
In private sector, all Multinational companies working in Pakistan are also closed on Saturdays, except the shopping malls and the shops where the salesmen are bound to work 12 hours in a day and 84 hours in the week.
Such things are happening in the country when the PPP government is in power and claims to be labourers friendly government.
The business community more particularly is exploiting the speech of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in which he said that "work, work and only work", so that the labourers should not be paid overtime which is double the amount of per hour salary.
Unfortunately, the officers of Provincial Labour Departments also keep quite, as every month they are paid under hand by the business community in Karachi.
How can the officers of the Labour Department will act and implement the factories and shop act when their palms are greased by the business community every month and without fail.
@ Blithe
Really? In my opinion (and according to other sources recorded in India where people don't have adequate/quality entertainment) the 2 day holiday will only encourage our population to grow. The people who need to reflect are not capable of it.
@Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA: If you were to reflect , you'll realise that IK is implementing 'Zardari Khappay' policy.
By needlessly focusing all the biased criticism on PML N, IK is deciding the opposition and helping Zardari. It's actually IK-Zardari Bahi-Bahi.
Luckily , the Muslim leaguers have seen through this and will fight tooth and nail up prevent the right vote bank not being split.
Why is IK targeting PML N? To get back at them for highlighting the Sita White issue in 1997 election (it's only personal).
great decission hahahahahahahahah
@DevilHunterX:
demand side management for energy conservation will only make a negligible dent...
there is no talk of decreasing technical losses due aging & inefficient power transmission & distribution, and commercial losses due to theft and non-payments...
more generation capacity needs to come online really address the issue...
The government doesn't work anyways so ask then to work 2 days a week and read the newspapers at home the rest of the work week.
""Gilani revealed that the government will draft an act for the prevention of power thefts. “Cases related to power thefts will be registered and immediate action against the culprits will be taken,” he said.""
Haha, what a joke. The amount of theft carried out under the banner of being a party member with influence is stupendous. And this is not to say that it is only politicians; you can drive by any police officer residence building and see the kundas, untouched and never to be touched; you can even see kundas over the boundary walls of military colonies (e.g. the one at the junction of queens road and mai kolachi). Good luck trying to have those removed without getting a severe beating from the colony security force. If you get this level of ethics from country officials, what do you expect the average man to do? So then we blame the KESC and power generation companies and come up with daylight savings and 8pm closures. Sad state of affairs.
2 day weekend is actually a good idea. And thanks to Nawaz Sharif's earlier term, it will be the international convention of Saturday and Sunday.
2 days will give the population a time to reflect.
these guys don't have the will and capacity to solve Pakistan's energy problem in a 100 year... it's all political drama during the election year to try to fool the public, once again....
@Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA: And they can save the fuel they will save by not showing up for work right? How about we give all government employees a SKYPE id and make them log in from work too? Or how about we fire everyone and just outsource our government to maybe China?
All sarcasm aside, the 5 days work week is great news and IS positive step in improving the work productivity.
The 5 day work week will not only save electricity bill but it will also save a lot of free fuel which the Government employees get - well the senior officers and favourite officials anyway.