ISLAMABAD – The provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) have rejected the centre’s proposal of two holidays a week during summer and desired its non inclusion in recommendations for the energy summit. An official source at the Ministry of Water and Power said some of the draft recommendations for the energy summit were shared with the provinces to seek their consent.
Punjab and KPK both objected to the proposal of two holidays a week, saying it badly affected business and trade activities. Their argument was that the business community mostly observed Friday as their weekly off and with the government offices and banks closed on Saturday and Sunday, there would be actual three days off per week.
Punjab said businessmen in the province were averse to the proposal and it should not be included in recommendations for the summit. The provinces, he said, also expressed reservations over the closure of the markets at 8pm in the evening. They suggested that the time limit should be advanced by an hour.
On the improvement in power generation, he said public sector generation companies (GENCOs) were being rehabilitated on an urgent basis to increase their capacity by 615MW.
