Federal cabinet restores Saturday weekly off

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved restoring weekly offs on Saturdays in government offices.

The prime minister had made the decision after assuming power in April ending the weekly off on Saturday and instructing all officers and staffers to arrive at 8 AM. The move was higher unpopular and led to resentment from government workers. 

The cabinet met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and discussed the overall political and economic situation of the country.

The cabinet was briefed about energy issue and ways and means to reduce load-shedding which had emerged as the biggest challenge for the government.

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.

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

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 approved.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said the federal cabinet meeting was given a briefing on ways to reduce load shedding and overall energy situation.

In a tweet, she said there was a shortage of installed capacity to cater to the high demand. The minister said there were also supply chain gaps because the PTI government did not make enough fuel contracts.

She said the present government was addressing these issues on an urgent basis. She said that in four years PTI was not able to even make operational all the projects PML-N had started.