ISLAMABAD, June 7: The federal cabinet on Tuesday nodded in affirmative to restore weekly offs on Saturdays in government offices. The cabinet, though, approved the resumption of Saturdays as a holiday, no decision could be made over closing markets by 7pm to save power.
While addressing a press conference after a crucial federal cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said there were suggestions of allowing work-from-home on Fridays and early closure of markets.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the meeting and discussed how the government could deal with the energy crisis at hand due to which the public has had to suffer hours-long load-shedding. The cabinet, though, approved the resumption of Saturdays as a holiday, no decision could be made over closing markets by 7pm to save power.
According to Radio Pakistan, Information minister informed that the Federal Cabinet has approved a comprehensive plan to gradually bring down electricity load-shedding to just two hours by the end of this month. Marriyum Aurangzeb said under the plan, the Cabinet decided to divide load-shedding duration into three parts. She said from 6th to 15th of this month, there will be 3.5-hour duration of load-shedding, from 16th to 24th three hours and 25th to 29th 2.5 hours.
She said after 30th of this month, total duration of electricity load-shedding in the country will be curtailed to just two hours a day. Marriyum Aurangzeb said the cabinet also restored five working days from Monday to Friday with two weekly holidays on Saturday and Sunday to meet the current challenging situation. She said the Cabinet also constituted a committee to assess the impacts of declaring Work from Home on Friday as well.
The Information Minister said the step will help save 77 billion rupees annually. She said instructions have been issued to provinces to switch-on street lights on alternate days, whereas a proposal regarding early closure of markets will be discussed with all the relevant stakeholders.
She said the Cabinet also gave approval for running a national awareness campaign for energy conservation. Similarly, the Cabinet imposed ban on purchase of official vehicles, except ambulances and vehicles for education purposes. Marriyum Aurangzeb said the country is currently facing a shortfall of 4600 megawatts of electricity as the previous government of PTI failed to complete power projects within the stipulated time that included Trimmu Power Station, Karot Hyhdro Power Project and Shanghai Electric Power Plant at Sahiwal. Marriyum Aurganzeb said the cabinet also approved 40 percent cut in petrol quota for government functionaries and cabinet members. TLTP
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