A notification was issued in this regard today.
According to the announcement, all government departments – except the civil secretariat and IG office – will have six working days.
The Punjab caretaker government on April 9 announced a two-day weekly off to combat the ongoing energy crisis.
Power issue is one of the main challenges faced by the new government headed by Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N).
The party's election campaign revolved around its promises to end the crisis once it is elected.
COMMENTS (17)
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Question is how much fuel will be wasted?
Those who are lauding this decision do not realize that it is basically one extra day per week of unpaid work. It is not like they will be paid extra for this extra day. So, basically it is robbing these people of their due compensation for work.
After a corporate pleasing budget, the Shareefs come up with another corporate pleasing decision.
Good move! to be implemented in other provinces also.
Pakistanis time to work now! strikes and unexpected holidays already brought a huge loss to the economy. Workout so in return you would be compensated with prosper Pakistan, rather than criticizing only Government. Meanwhile, Friday Half-day and Saturday full off day is a very good idea to introduce!
What do they hope to achieve by working on Saturdays, when they are so inefficient that they can't take care of their work in the first five days of the week? Instead of working half-day on Saturday, which does not achieve any purpose btw, the Punjab government should instead look towards increasing the work hours i.e. 8AM-6PM instead of 9-5 and cut down on the two hour prayer break on Friday. Anyone who has worked half-day on Saturday, be it a bank or any other organization, would agree that it is a wastage of resources.
Friday Half day & Saturday off, first working day Sunday, this will bring us in line with Middle-east & provide advantage to attract Europen & American companies to use us(Pakistan) base to provide Sunday processing to their business centers in Middle-east with a skilled & cheaper work-force based in Pakistan.
I agree with Kaleem. We expect to WOW the world with our hard work and yet we criticize the Govt. for working an extra day. Look at this way, if the Govt. employees in Punjab are lazy and inefficienct and your work takes 6 days to be processed, you will not have to wait for 8 days (due to weekend). So it saves you time! You should be thankful.
@Marium "He wants to make already frustrated people more miserable. "
Dilemma, Working for an extra day makes us feel more miserable? and yet we want to be asian tigers, world leaders and other superlatives.
this is a very good decision. like the private sector, the public sector should also have just a single holiday per week
what a stupid decision.. i don't know how productive could be Saturdays.. and why only in Punjab???
Banks should be open on saturdays as in the rest of europe
@citizen: I think you are a US or European citizen, not a pakistani citizen atleast. Please visit govt department and see how punctual employees are and how hard they work in 5 days, Also Friday is half day in most of offices.
Well for Government officers everyday is a weekend so no need for it. They usually come at around 9 and then the usual chat until 10, then the tea break of half an hour and then from 11 to 1 newspapers and chit chat, then Namaaz and Food break and upto 2:30 they start preparing to leave and until 3 they left the office. So just tell me this is called Job or a weekend business for Government officials on everyday basis.??
So He decides making people work an extra day will compensate for the energy crises. He wants to make already frustrated people more miserable. Way to go Mr. Lion!
@citizen the weekly holiday has been cancelled to enjoy power for one more day in a week. It doesn't have any thing to do with achieving any productive advantage.
This is beyond understanding . entire world is off on Saturday.What advantage will we get by asking people to come on Saturday when we essentially cannot have any trade with rest of world ? People deserve two days off weekend in this country of chaos and tensions
The 1st promise fulfilled, the loadshedding has come to an end. By the way, whether in Secretariat and IG Office, people came from moon.